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Amp or Integrated for Dali MS4

I recently picked up a used pair of Dali MS4s. Prior to buying them, I had heard them in a couple of different dealer systems with tube amps where they sounded phenomenal--female vocals to die for and solid bass, among other things. Unfortunately, the amps (EAR 890 x 2 at one shop and an unknown but $20k amp at the other) are waaay out of my price range.

Now that I have them home, in my more modest system, they are really showing up the rest of my gear, i.e., not much synergy. I have a new apartment, so I've recently ordered some acoustic treatments to address the "room" part of the equation.

For those of you who have experience with the Dalis, what amp or integrated do you like the best? I'm looking to spend less than $5k on the used market.

The rest of my decidedly mid-fi system:
PS3 source
Onkyo TX-SR705 HT receiver
Musetex MTR-101 monoblock amps, updated in 1996

I generally don't listen at high volumes, but the 100WPC MTR-101s just seem to run out of steam.
mfranz
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
You might want to try a tube preamp with a solid state amp. The combinations are endless. I don't know if you will get the same sound quality that you heard with the big $ amps but you can get very good sound with amplification in the Dali's price range.

Also, if you can't stand digital harshness you should check out cd palyers with minimum phase or apodizing filters. EMM Labs, Meridian, Ayre, PS Audio and Esoteric have these filters in some of their players.
mfranz OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not familiar with the terms you used for the CD players, so I will do a little research on that. Another option I'm seriously considering is getting the Modwright tube upgrade for the Oppo BDP-83SE and running that into a preamp or integrated.

In the meantime, I decided to take a step backwards in digital resolution so I could reintroduce the Meitner Museatex PA-6i into the system, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the results.

I have the PS3 (PCM 44.1kHz & 48kHz) optical running into an Entech Number Cruncher 205.2 and on to the PA-6i. I didn't really sit down and listen critically, but this combination has more "body" and better soundstaging than the upsampled HDMI going through the Onkyo. I had some music playing in the background while I was working on the laptop, and I kept getting distracted by what I was hearing--that's a good thing. It isn't the last word on anything, but it may delay a new amp purchase for a bit.

So the Pass INT30A didn't have a problem driving the speakers? I thought I would have to go with one of the bigger Pass amps (X250/250.5 or XA100) to get enough punch and bass control on the Dalis.
mfranz OP
4 posts
 
Guess I'm a nerd for staying up late reading about jitter, and this is getting off-topic to a degree, but I found the discussion over at AVS in the Ayre DX-5 thread highly enlightening. It's great to read some really brilliant people discuss the design process so openly. Now I just have to wait a year for those things to start showing up on Audiogon for $4k instead of $10k.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
I don't know your listening habits so the INT30A may not have enough power for you. I guess if you're not sure then it probably doesn't. But that's not a problem because there are many good more powerful amps around.

Spend some time reading reviews and this and other forums, and listen to as many players and amps as you can and you will find the right ones for you.
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