which of these four amps for Wharfedale Elysian 4's?

for those unaware the Kinki is a dense 50Ib's in what appears to be a standard 17" chasis

its also ugly as sin and ergonomically and functionally flawed

all meat on the bone no frills sonic goodness

the Elysians are like a big time tower from yesteryear with added refinement

cliches coming,

hearing things I never heard, Danny Boy by Jacintha, her breath and subtle mouth noises, the same with many female vocals,

piano keys with heavy weight to them.....a piano key struck live in person will feel and sound weighty, most speakers fail here imo.....plucking and strumming on strings has a clarity during the initial pluck and strum that most speakers also fail at imo

another not so abnormal downside discovered.....hearing all the background noise and noise floor in recordings..........

may need to seriously upgrade source and amp to minimize this

bad recordings play better than any speaker I've heard

example...alot of Aretha Franklin recordings are poor and they drown her voice in a hot mess of clutter....these speakers let her shine

they seem easy to drive and accurate to their 92db sensitivity spec and I suspect would do very well with tubes

I may need to get into a pair of purifi monos for the lower noise floor but that will be negated unless I can find s atreamer/dac combo with an equally low noise floor and I suspect those units would be north of 15k and out of my price range at the moment

@audiocanada 

Your findings on the amps are no surprise to me at all.  I own both the EX-M7 and the EX-B7s and the B7's are an upgrade which should not be a surprise. It is not however a large enough one that you need to run out and buy a pair unless you find a good deal. I find the Kinki's to be a match with a good 6SN7 based preamp. I've used both the Don Sachs and two different Supratek models. 

speaker impressions thus far,

at their price point, simply phenomenal, class leading , class exceeding,

this was expected based on my research

i would say if you're at all interested just get em if you can deal with the drawbacks which were also expected

which are....

hard to control the bass, need room treatments and or eq, kind of standard for larger towers

NOT an audiophile speaker per se, no holography, no crazy imaging,  not crazy resolving,  I suspect the Wharfdale Dovedale may be their best 'audiophile' speaker

the Elysian 2's with subs are likely a better overall solution for most

and the Kinki power amp controls these better than the other amps and its not close, I need to look into Kinki monos, again maybe not an audiophile amp but super clean fast and powerful and the stated power has out muscled and out controlled Hegel h390, and Parasound a21+

Kinki also did this with tough to drive Dyn Special 40's and controlled them better than my last 10 amps including Parasound JC5 and Mcintosh MC402

***mac was a very very nice amp though and endgame for many

@audiocanada 

Congrats! After you getting everything set-up to your liking, please share your impressions.

David

(facepalm) No such thing happened..... Ayre’s cunning daddy downrated his 8 ohm wattage spec to make it look like it doubled in power at 4 ohms. The audiophile propagandized by doubling miracles got fooled.

I have not heard the Ayre, but based on reputation and its ability to double ts wattage into 4 ohms, that would be my choice.

unfortunately importing new into Canada has all kinds fees above and beyond that msrp, those Schiit’s would run around $5400 CAD and the local used amps I mentioned are less than half that and can be re-sold easily for what I will pay

but yeah i get your point, as soon as I have some extra cash will upgrade accordingly

In that event, the Yamaha could be a ’safer’ bet. I had the predecessor A-S2100 for a bit and it is a conservatively rated tubey sounding SS without sacrificing any detail (the kind of detail that is typically lost with regular tube amps). If this 2200 is anything like it, it will play a better role in bringing out the spatial qualities of this speaker. But, the important thing is these higher end Yamaha amps are designed to be very reliable (can take a beating if the prior owner was a amp abusing neandertal) and if it did break...Yamaha techs are good at fixing their amps as good as new without charging you anything much at all (send it directly to Yamaha, not to some local tinker town clown).

The Kinki may not be a good match for this specific speaker. It could make your speaker sound a bit clinical and its spatial qualities could go away. Chifi support may be great/may not be too great (depending) if/when things break.

ok, bought the Ayre per the multiple recommendations

bought the Kinki also as seller gave me a good price on matching preamp

thought it would be nice to have both to get a comparison

I think im done here

thanks all

I would go with the Ayre,I believe it's the best out of all the amps on the list.

thank you

I can likely acquire the matching preamp to those power amps listed at a later date, and in fact would like to do so

RME direct to power amp has been working out pretty well, I started doing this previously at the suggestion of a various members both here and on the RME

forums

the RME has also worked out connected to various integrated amps into their standard line level input

I have not heard the Ayre, but based on reputation and its ability to double ts wattage into 4 ohms, that would be my choice. It is going to be a nice system, plan for a real preamp, it is the heart of your system. 

The Yamaha A-S2200 will give you an excellent integrated. You will need only a streamer and DAC. I have used Denefrips Enya with mine and a Sonos Port, but Wiim Pro Plus or Bluesounf Node  (or any streamer) should do.

If you are in Canada already, why not 

https://heaven11audio.com/billie-amp-stereo-intergrated-amplifier/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2SnIYt4CRA

unfortunately importing new into Canada has all kinds fees above and beyond that msrp, those Schiit's would run around $5400 CAD and the local used amps I mentioned are less than half that and can be re-sold easily for what I will pay

but yeah i get your point, as soon as I have some extra cash will upgrade accordingly

no preamp

That’s not good. It least get a Schitt Kara.

@audiocanada You have a very good speaker, a bonafide giant killer.

You may never know how much a seller beat up on the used amp or how soon it could fall apart on you (cause a nagging headache).

A pair of Schiit Tyr (Class A’ish topology) giant killer monoblocks "NEW" would run you $3200 with a 5 year warranty + 15 day satisfaction guarantee/full refund return period.

8 Ohms: 200W RMS , 4 Ohms: 350W RMS

I am assuming that your used amp "deals" are priced more than NEW SchiitTyr giant killers.

Good luck with the amp purchase.

no preamp

streamer straight to RME dac

What's your preamp. I liking the Parasound because of the EMT tweeter. Wires and preamp will make a big difference.

@audiocanada

I heard your speakers and was very impressed. They have solid bass and really good micro-detail capabilities. Ayre V-5xe excels at imaging and transient responses, which would work well with your speakers. Some people describe the Ayre’s sound characteristics as clinical/dry. With certain speakers I could see that. Wharfedale’s tend to sound pleasantly warm, to my ears, which has me thinking they would work well with the Ayre; creating a balance of revealing (Ayre) and musical (Elysian 4).

David