Pre Amp + Amp to run B&W 803S

Scorpious,
It looks like the Yamaha is a professional amp--like those found in nightclubs. What drew you to these amps? It looks from the spec sheet that these amps don't even have a single ended input. How are you planning on connecting them?
Just curious.

Pepe

Balanced XLR inputs. from balanced output from a PreAmp.

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/Images/ProAudio/Product/Views/pseries_amp_rear.jpg

Pretty sure you will have trouble driving 803S to decent output levels with a $2K integrated; it's a real burden on underbuilt amps. Not a ROTEL-sound fan at all, so not an option to me at all.

Maybe try to find a used Parasound A21 power amp, stable to 400w at 4ohms, new at $2K.

Good luck.

I have not heard the 803s mated to anything in a system that was familiar to me, but at that price point, you could get some decent seperates. I went the route of the DNA-125 from McCormack and Eastern Electric Minimax pre, and it was a very nice sound for $1500 used. You could probably get a used DNA-1 if you needed more juice, the Minimax, and still be at $2k. Upgrade paths are readily available for the McCormacks down the line. Or, perhaps a C-J MF2250a mated to decent pre would keep you under $2k and sound great.

you bought speakers that require a very high quality amplifier. B&Ws will sound terrible if you use the amp that is not totally up to the level of the speakers. This is the biggest disadvantage with B&Ws - they require top notch amplification. What you are thinking of doing will

I would definitely go the way of separates. At the least, I would start with the McCormack DNA-1 but nothing less than that. For preamp you can pick up a used Sonic Frontiers Line-1 and may be fit into $2k barely.
I really don't know if purchasing these speakers were a money well spent if you were not going to provide the amplification that is on par with the speakers.
It's like filling up a Ferrari with regular gas.