Speaker Pairing With Amplifier

I'd get a Parasound A21 amp. Can be found at a reasonable price on the secondhand market. Can compete sonically with any of today's five-figure amps!

you wrote AVR, which means audio video receiver. you also mentioned it has enough power.

a quick look shows it is an am/fm receiver, not an avr, and has only 50 wpc into 8 ohm speakers. It is not rated to drive 4 ohm speakers, see the back plate: 8 to 16 ohm range is shown.

your speakers are high sensitivity, however they are 4 ohm speakers, not 8 ohm. thus you need to look at an amp's rating at 4 ohms, AND, it it has 4 ohm connections for 4 ohm speakers.

I agree, get more power, jason's recommendation is 300 wpc into 8 ohms

power needs double for each + 3db of sound level, so 50wpc, 100wpc, 200wpc, 400wpc. each increment only providing +3db increase.

IOW, don't think a 70 or 100 wpc is a LOT more power than 50 wpc. Thus, for those speakers, not necessarily to get louder, but to have the power/reserves to drive them, and handle instantaneous peaks, 300 wpc is not too much.

that parasound amp is expensive, perhaps the best choice if that price is in your budget.

to get into more affordable solutions, I would look for a less costly solution, perhaps 150 wpc into 8 ohm, with 4 ohm taps, particularly the type of amp that doubles it's power into 300 wpc at 4 ohms.

jason

you know I like Vintage

To increase the sound quality I would recommend going to an integrated audio amp. AVRs have too many functions in one box… and particularly older stuff. Given your interest in old stuff…I would look at NAD and Rotel integrated amps. They will supply far greater current and sound quality… I would only consider wattage within these brands because wattage is not really the parameter to judge the power of the amp… it is current. NAD and Rotel have competed on real power and sound quality for decades. Most of the rest of them on how many cool knobs and functions they had.

the 80s wasn't a great decade, kind of the forgotten one, in the age of Hi-Fi

I wonder how recently you bought the MartinLogans?

I would go with a Rotel or NAD integrated amp from Crutchfield, if you don't like it, return it. And then you will have to decide about your speakers :)

OP what is your budget? I used to own Martin Logan quest. They love Krell , you can find them used.

So it is an AVR, a very old one with a composite input and output, the only reason I'm using it is because MartinLogan claims compatibility with 8 and 6 ohm amps with the 35XTis, and I owned it already, I picked it up a bit ago for $25 or so, and for that it was worth it, but it's still cheap.

So my budget is well, low as possible, but $500-$1000. I just got the MartinLogans, I like the AMT tweeters in them.

I'll look into some Rotel or NAD or Krell stuff, I can't afford the Parasound even on the used market. The other thing I was thinking of was a Scott 299.

The only way I would go with something more expensive is something like a NAD C700 since it has a digital streaming section and all that which is convenient as I don't need another box for it.

I appreciate all of your guy's time.

I’m looking around, would a NAD C368 with a BluOS card be a good thing to grab? I can grab them just under $1000 used, I can find them cheaper looking around for cheaper. Class D doesn't bother me as long as it sounds good. Also the MDC expansion is interesting to me although maybe a gimmick.

NAD C368 > Safe and Sound HQ. has one with warranty for almost half price.

Sounds like I found my answer. NAD C368 from SafeandSound

I'm ordering some other stuff from them as well so I'll bundle it all.

Here ya go!

yogiboy

that outlaw feature set is both vintage and modern, impressive. 110 wpc 8 ohms, 165 wpc 4 ohms 

a discussion about it here (just found it, didn’t read it)

New 2160 is $999. If over budget, Prior 2150 with less features on hifishark $450.

100 wpc 8ohms; 160 wpc 4 ohms. Perhaps wait for a cleaner one.

https://outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html

OP found his NAD.

For anyone else interested, a used one popped up, $700.

Music Room, excellent condition they say, 

astal

not to be argumentative, but to clarify for your understanding.

either you got the model wrong in your post, or, it is a 2 channel stereo receiver with no video features.

AVRs, audio video receivers, have video.

are you people reading the OPs' updates? He ordered the refurbished NAD from SafeandSound. And you keep posting suggestions. Weird...

@elliottbnewcombjr That’s odd, mine DOES have composite input, you can see it on the front, along with VCR selection. I wonder why they made multiple versions with the same model number.

Must’ve been a quiet revision or something... I’ve used it for composite video switching for some of my older stuff.

Also I haven’t ordered the NAD yet, but that was the plan since it’s got the feature set I’d like and is a good price.

The image isn't loading, but this is the version I've got.

astal

I sit corrected, funny they did that, but there you have it!

It’s wild that they did that, as an amp it’s mediocre as expected but for the $25 I paid for it I can’t make any real complaints, it’s competent with my old JBL Studio S38IIs, but the pairing with the slightly more exotic ribbon tweeters is not a good one. They sounded better when I demoed them for sure with a Marantz on them, but nearly 40 years of technology improvements can do that.

On your recommendation with power, I'm going to try and stretch to a refurbished C388, 350W 4 ohm dynamic power, which should really help them shine. If I can't I'll go C368 @ 200W.

Oops...didn't realize he already ordered something. Ignore the message.