2. amps-preamps
  3. 177530-53619

For classical music lovers best amp for large orchestral forces?

I recently upgraded my pre to an arc ref 6se. Currently using pas xa25. It's a very good amp but I'm noticing a fair amount of compression when playing large symphonic works. My speakers are Dalis and they are excellent as is the arc.

For smaller forces, chamber, piano and voices the system works beautifully. But if I'm looking for more transparency and a deeper sound stage for symphonies I find sometimes a boxy cramped sound. Looking to spend around 8k or less either tube or solid state. There have been discussions about the xa25 and what's better but they fill up immediately with tangents of philosophical and technical discussions of how one hears. I'm looking for as many possibilities of actual units that I can read about and possibly hear.

Thanks for your ideas.

roxy1927
curtdr
348 posts
 

I dunno...   Marantz Ruby PM KI perhaps?  not super pricey

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dbphd
1,623 posts
 

Although I put together the setup for jazz and baroque, JC 1 monoblocks driving KEF LS50 Metas augmented with a pair of KEF KC62 subs prove surprisingly credible at portraying Mahler’s 2nd. I’ve been surprised that I prefer the sound with an Ayre K-5xeMP preamp to that with the JC 2. I plan to replace the two JC 1s with a stereo Ayre V-5xe as a decluttering effort. I predict the dynamic range will be entirely adequate.

db

roxy1927 OP
120 posts
 

But shouldn’t 89dbs with the proper amp be able to comfortably handle large symphonic forces? They really are wonderful speakers.

tweak1
3,561 posts
 

The future of hi quality power amplification at sensible prices is here: I have a LSA Voyager 350 GaN amp. ~500 wpc++ @ 4 ohms (MSRP is a mere $3000). A couple days ago I spun Ernest Ansermat (London);  Rimsky Korsokov's Scheherazade. Played really big, especially after treating all my connections with Mad Scientist Graphene Contact Enhancer

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