Recommended integrated for B&W 802?


Hi all-

Looking for integrated amps to put on the audition list. Speakers are B&W Matrix 802s - would like phono section as well. After reading the posts here, it seems like the overwhelming consensus is that Krells are too bright for the B&Ws. Levinson is pricey - plinius? mcintosh? Looking for something around $2k new/used. Need a good foundation to build the system around.
devsung

Showing 2 responses by devsung

I'm getting a lot of comments about how these speakers need juice. The listening room is relatively small (approx 12x15)and I was running old 150w Luxman separates with reasonable success. Figured it was time to bring the components up to par with the speakers. Integrateds looked interesting for their convenience but I may end up with separates if I can't get lots of good compatible power for the 802s without paying $$$ for something like a levinson 383 or Rowland. Here's my quick "short list" - feel free to add:

Integrated:

Plinius 8200
Krell 300iL
Classe CAP151
MF A3cr

Amps:

older Krell KSA or Levinson
Aragon 8008
Bryston 4Bst
CJ ss?
Thanks! FYI - they are Series3 802Ms. Musical taste is almost 100% classical, majority of it is digital. The rest of the system is certainly not up to par with the speakers thus the desire to begin moving up the components as budget allows. Again, the system was an older set of Luxman 150w SS separates with a Philips (900 series?) player. At the time, the Philips was highly rated as a budget player with an excellent transport and thus could be easily upgraded later with an outboard DAC (or so I was led to believe). The speakers were biwired with Audioquest cables (would have to doublecheck which model) and AQ interconnects. Thanks again for everyone's help. I'm excited to have stumbled across this forum.