Amp for focal 1038be?
You listed the Prima luna’s being considered. If you’re thinking the amps AND the pre with the 1038’s, I’ve heard that combination many times. Very nice and you could have many choices of tubes to fine tune to your ears. I’ve heard the Mac also, which was nice also, but it doesn’t have the features/flexibility of the PL. I would go PL for the value, over the Mac, if sound/build value is paramount. The green lights are a little much for my tastes. The Dialogue 6/7 is 2 iterations old. You must mean the Dialogue Premium, which is the previous before the EVO series. You’re aware it’s subjective, so probably all the suggestions will work with the Focals, and your ears are the only judge. |
Agree with Verdantaudio If you're looking for 3d holographic sound you must go with a tube amp. It doesn't have to be an 845 tube. For ultimate realism a SET would be best, but prices increase exponentially with increased power. Of all the amps listed you'll probably get the best sound from MC275. Mac will also hold its value better than primaluna. |
dlr944These speakers have a difficult load for an amp, they don’t need a lot of watts as they are 90db, 80w will do, but they do need an amp with decent b***s (current) into low impedances. The combination of nearly 50 degrees -phase angle, and being down to 3ohms in the bass area, really means you should look for amps that are totally stable and won’t break a sweat to see 2ohm loads. Look at Stereophile’s bench tests on hundreds of amps to see which ones in the measurement bench tests are able to take the two ohms loads with having a hissy fit. https://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/707FOCFIG1.jpg I’ve had 1038 BE2’s for approx. three years. I began by powering them with Odyssey Audio 160w per channel Cyclops, moved on to Pass Labs x250.5 paired with Pass XP-10. Within three months both were traded in for x250.8 amp and XP-20 Pre. Marked improvement with each upgrade (especially from the Odyssey to the Pass brand) I highly recommended the x250. If you can’t afford the .8 go with the 5. 👍 This is the way the OP should be looking. Cheers George |
For the Focal, I would recommend avoiding fast high resolution type amps. This includes your emotiva and other amps such as the suggested Luxman and the suggested Rotel. While the Luxman and Rotel are excellent for their price, they are not going to be a good match for Focal. Avoid Bryston and Classe amplifiers as well. Parasound might be a good match. Pass Labs might be very good as well, but I would probably try pairing with their XA series amps instead. The Class A of the XA series gives you more body (which is really needed for these Focal). I have heard Prima Luna tube amps and they are very nice for tubes, but I don't know enough about them to try to predict how they will pair with the ultra-fast sounding Focal (which can easily sound thin). On a budget, maybe the Vincent Audio amps with tube input stage? |
