2. amps-preamps
  3. 195731-172146

Tube + SS bi-amping B&W 803 D3s?

In the constant quest for incremental gains and chasing the high from first hearing these speakers at the dealer, I have been considering bi-amping my B&W 803 D3s with a tube amp for HF and using my current Parasound A21+ for LF. Anyone have experience with this type of setup or recommendations for tube amps that may be particularly worth looking at?

FWIW, I tend towards warmer sound. The speakers are crystal clear but the Parasound tends towards brighter sound with them. The addition of the C2500 and the SVS subs has definitely helped, but I get the sense there is still some performance left to find.

 

Current setup:

NAD C658 Streaming DAC

Pro-Ject Carbon Debut TT with Sumiko Wellfleet cartridge

McIntosh C2500 Pre-amp

B&W 803 D3 Floorstanding Speakers

SVS SB-3000 subs x2

andrewmland

Showing 2 responses by emergingsoul

emergingsoul
1,348 posts
 

i use a pair of McIntosh MC 901 mono amplifiers which is a biamping creation and it seems to work really well with the built-in crossover stuff. Doing all this externally is a royal pain in the ass.  Difficult to blend things very well with four separate monos and requires lots of interconnects.  

I like the idea of tubes and maybe with the 803s you may be better served with A pair of 300 W tube monos, maybe CJ, or stereo amplifier with tubes and just leave it at that, ie no biamping.  I haven’t tried using just the tube side of the 901s to power the entire speaker without the solid state and maybe I should but I’m lazy I guess but not sure it would be all that meaningful at this point.  I have 802 D3s and they’re doing a lot better with tons of power which I now have.

I like the Sonus speaker recommendation.  Speaker cables were very helpful to tone down brightness of 802s.  If you use a processor for Home theater DSP is very helpful. 

emergingsoul
1,348 posts
 

@knotscott 

Adjustment you made to limit the lower frequencies going through tube amplifier was very interesting. I have heard that if you let lower frequencies flow through the tube amplifier with the resulting output not using them because only the higher frequencies are going to the mid and tweeter drivers this can create a problem for the tube amp because It don't know what to do with these lower frequencies and it could lead to burning out the transformers.

And that could be a serious problem because you don't wanna burn out your tube amplifiers

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