In the past few months I've had a pass x150.5 , xa30.5 and a first watt SIT2. 150 a/b watts, 30 a watts, and 10 a watts. I had a pair of 87db speakers that both pass amps easily powered to loud listening levels. I believe the pass amps perform above their ratings. I now use the first watt SIT2 with 95db speakers and that easily powers my speakers in a room larger than yours. My experience has also been the lower powered amps sounded better.
25 watts Class A or 70 watts Class A/B ?
I understand these days there are many good examples of both Class A and Class A/B amps. To the point that a well designed Class A/B can beat a similar pedigree Class A amp. However my question is in particular related to these two amps:
1. First Watt F5 (Pass Labs)
2. Naim NAP 300
The speaker to be driven is a Tannoy dual concentric Turnberry SE. It is a 93 db sensitive 8 ohm load and in general considered to go well with both high powered and low powered amps.
F5 is a highly purist class A 25 watts design with a robust power supply. It is a push-pull design so it can generally drive difficult loads better than typical single ended first watt models (F3, F4 etc). I have heard the F5 on an Altec horn system and I loved its pure and direct sound.
Naim amps in general has always appealed to me, again because of their very direct presentation. Music has a certain excitement and bounce through them. The NAP 300 is one of their top models and I am sure it will be a very refined amp.
However I will only buy one. Both these amps must be having few fundamental differences in the way they present music considering they are coming from very different designers. Even the topology is different here.
The first question here is, can a 25 watts F5 drive the Tannoys well ? My room size is 200 sqft and I listen to music at reasonably medium to loud levels. I dont play very loud though. I listen to all kinds of music from Mozart to Metallica.
Qualitatively, sound per sound, how do these two amps compare ?
1. First Watt F5 (Pass Labs)
2. Naim NAP 300
The speaker to be driven is a Tannoy dual concentric Turnberry SE. It is a 93 db sensitive 8 ohm load and in general considered to go well with both high powered and low powered amps.
F5 is a highly purist class A 25 watts design with a robust power supply. It is a push-pull design so it can generally drive difficult loads better than typical single ended first watt models (F3, F4 etc). I have heard the F5 on an Altec horn system and I loved its pure and direct sound.
Naim amps in general has always appealed to me, again because of their very direct presentation. Music has a certain excitement and bounce through them. The NAP 300 is one of their top models and I am sure it will be a very refined amp.
However I will only buy one. Both these amps must be having few fundamental differences in the way they present music considering they are coming from very different designers. Even the topology is different here.
The first question here is, can a 25 watts F5 drive the Tannoys well ? My room size is 200 sqft and I listen to music at reasonably medium to loud levels. I dont play very loud though. I listen to all kinds of music from Mozart to Metallica.
Qualitatively, sound per sound, how do these two amps compare ?
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- 34 posts total
- 34 posts total