quandary: inefficient speakers, low-power amp

It may be a more expensive experiment, and I cannot speak to actually reccomend the solution as being good or bad, but you might also consider Paul Speltz's Zero-Autoformers as a possible solution. They are essentially in-line (speaker cables) transformers that make your amp see the speakers as having 2X, 3X, or 4X the impedance. A more thorough explanation and reviews are available on the website. I have no experience with them to speak of. Actually I have a pair of them that belongs to my friend Peter, but I have not hooked them up. He may be selling his pair as he'd purchased them to use with his Quads (electrostatic speakers) and was not pleased with the results there. Your Dynaudios are a different animal though. Anyway, some folks like what these things do. Just two more pennies in your hat.

Marco

get an active preamp; i recommend one by wright sound

if you need another anthem amp 1 i have one

Hey guys,

Update: I got a nice active pre (Audio Refinement Pre 5) to play around with. Kazam! No problem blasting the system loud enough to peel paint. However, I found the whole sound shifted dramatically. Even the PRAT -- with the Creek passive, I was getting sort of laid back sound - the system now sounds faster, more urgent. The sound is tighter overall, more dynamic (surprise, surprise), but initially, it was unbearably aggressive to my ears, a little white and flat-sounding, very solid state-ish. So I went to fooling around with cables and tubes. Found out the biggest culprit was the Russian-made 12bh7s in the Anthem (follow the Amperex 12ax7). With the Creek the Electro Harmonix 12bh7s gave me more drive and a clearer, cleaner sound than the NOS tubes I had, but with the AR in the chain they're overkill. Swapped 'em out for some NOS Sylvania 12bh7s and the sound is quite good -- it has the richness, depth and nonfatiguing quality of the Creek, but with more slam and higher SPLs.

I still feel like I'm missing some of the depth I had with the passive setup, though. Now I'm eyeing the stock power cords on the AR and my Muse DAC. And thinking about getting different NOS 12bh7s to roll into the Anthem. Damn this hobby and its infinitely forking paths to nirvana/neurosis!

Hi Jeff,

I owned the Anthem amp1 for a while, and eventually sold it on audiogon. I wonder if it was mine you bought ( :

I am also quite familliar with Dynaudio speakers, as I own the S1.4

While I agree the Anthem amp is an excellent amp, it frankly is not suited for Dynaudio speakers. While it will work with them and give acceptable sound, you really are not getting the most with your speakers.

I'd be interested in hearing what SS amps you tried.

Dynaudio is kind of an interesting beast because you really have to get the components right for them to really shine, but when you do, they are incredible with their dynamics.

My experience has been tube preamp / SS poweramp really is the way to go with these. You really don't need to spend a lot of money, but the match does have to be there. You could pick up something like the Eastern Electric minimax preamp which is great and is a blessing with the dynaudios, along with the SS amp of your choice. I've used a CJ Sonographe 400 (200WPC) with them to great results. I bought the CJ here on the gon for something like $500. I switched to that amp directly from the Anthen amp1. I was using a Supratek Syrah as preamp at the time which is great but pricier. Swapping to the CJ brought out the dynamics of my dynaudios, and at first sounded like a lot of bass went away - but I realized that it actually just cleaned up the loose bass of the amp1. My overall enjoyment of listening to my stereo went up dramatically with this change, as the Dynaudios really do need a strong force to properly control the inefficient drivers.

So with that - I would recommend you at least try a tube preamp + SS amp combination. It would be an interesting experiment