CAV-50 and 804 Diamonds

The CJ CAV-50 is a wonderful, sweet little integrated amp. As you suspect, however, it is not a good match for the B&W 804s. If you love your speakers you will need a new amp, and that probably means SS to mate well with the 804s. What kind of music do you listen to?

But before you do that I would try your CAV-50 with a pair of more efficient speakers. I would suggest something in the JM Reynauds or Triangle line, but there are lots of options. I recently heard your amp played through a pair of Tekton speakers and it was very good. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised.

Agree, CAV-50 with B&W 805's YES, 804's NO. I had both these speakers with the CAV-50 and this is my experience.

Vinny

for most B&W speakers one needs a powerful SS amp. For a nice tube amp one should have some really nice efficient speakers. Vintage Klipsch are nice- Fortes, Cornwalls. I say vintage because you can save some money if you do that. I got some nice vintage La Scalas and an amp from Petery-Hedden in Indiana. I live close by. There are so many speakers to select from. I would recommend speakers requiring a minimum wpc of 10 and sensitivity of 89db or greater. I have a Jolida JD202BRC amp that is like the CAV 50 in power and tubes, etc. Maybe not quality, but ability to drive speakers. Mine does fine with some RF-62IIs and also with some Advent 6003s. I like the 6003s best. In all these years I have not found anything I liked better, or well enough to replace at a big cost. I sure do like the cornwalls, but those are big. Legacy makes some nice speakers. PSB makes some decent speakers. For those B&W speakers you need a 150 to 200 wpc SS amp. Give the folks at Petery-Hedden a call (on the net) and see if they have any nice vintage speakers.

I had a CJ preamp and when I changed to solid state I had to make sure to get something that was really good in the treble. Those CJs will spoil you and make most solid state sound really bright and etched in the treble

I'm surprised so far we don't know your room size. As Boband mentioned the B&Ws need power. Perhaps they'd be OK in a small room with your CAV-50. But since you say it is not a good match I would look to solid state. I owned these speakers and loved them. I had them paired with an Audio Research 100.2, a used amp that can be had for about $1500 used. Also, what is your preferred music? If you can afford these speakers and another $2-3k of wisely spent amplification I would agree to keep them. I only sold mine because of small children and the loss of my dedicated listening room. If you have a medium sized room (>150' squared) or bigger I would get at least 100 w/ch and a high current amp at that (one that doubles down its power).