@creditingkarma, If you want the best performance out of those speakers you buy mono amps and put then behind the speakers keeping the speaker wires as short as you can. Use Kimber Kable 12Tc. It has the lowest inductance of any cable on the market and at 3 feet it will be like having no cable at all. Then get yourself a pair of Parasound JC 1+. You will have to spend serious money to get better amps if you can find a better amp. John Curl knows what he is doing. More so perhaps than even Nelson Pass. The only reason that these amps cost less is that they are made is a high production facility in Taiwan that has all the robots and machines needed to speed things up and do surface mounted boards and such. Small American manufacturers do not have enough money to buy that kind of equipment, They either out source it or do though hole boards by hand. Atma-sphere does Point to point wiring only which I have to admit is a thing to behold. Anyway, the JC +1 uses extremely high quality parts as good as any amp made, the only difference is labor and volume. Parasound will move a lot more of these than Boulder will move it's entire line. I have the older JC1's and could not be happier. They run circles around all the other amps I have had including my old Krells. The JC1+ is even bigger and better.
Searching for an amp to pair with Rockport Atria II
I recently upgraded from a pair of Magico S1MKII to Rockport Atria II. I am very pleased with the move the Atria II is a more complete and “musical” listening experience. I am now looking to complete my system by upgrading from my Hegel H360 to a new amp. I have a dCS Bartok and two JL F100v2 subs in the system as well.
I currently am auditioning the Octave HP300 and Octave RE320 with the black box. I can say that the sound stage is much more open with the Octave gear compared to the Hegel. I did try the RE320 feed directly from the Bartok and it sounded great as well. the Hp300 just opened up the stage a bit more and provided more range to the dynamics.
I am looking for a bit of information on the Octave gear as far as reliability. There is not much out there outside of a few english language reviews. It seems like most of the reviews are out of Asia or Europe. It doesn’t seem like Octave has much market penetration here in the US.
I am open to other suggestions as well. I am enjoying the Octave so far and it seems to have more than enough power for the Rockports. I have seen a few videos with the Octave v80se driving Magico A1 and A3 so I am pretty sure it can provide the power if needed.
Thank you for any and all advice.
I currently am auditioning the Octave HP300 and Octave RE320 with the black box. I can say that the sound stage is much more open with the Octave gear compared to the Hegel. I did try the RE320 feed directly from the Bartok and it sounded great as well. the Hp300 just opened up the stage a bit more and provided more range to the dynamics.
I am looking for a bit of information on the Octave gear as far as reliability. There is not much out there outside of a few english language reviews. It seems like most of the reviews are out of Asia or Europe. It doesn’t seem like Octave has much market penetration here in the US.
I am open to other suggestions as well. I am enjoying the Octave so far and it seems to have more than enough power for the Rockports. I have seen a few videos with the Octave v80se driving Magico A1 and A3 so I am pretty sure it can provide the power if needed.
Thank you for any and all advice.