What mod's have been done to the 202 ?
How loud do you like to listen to your music and how big is your room ?
Musical preferences ?
Knowing this might give us a better idea. Sean
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Room size is about 20X20 and I listen to a broad range of Music.Anywhere from Soundtracks,Classical,Rock to Country when I have people around that want to hear it.
Roo size will vary though until I get a house of my own.
Playing Levels will generally be Loud when time permits. |
While the Forte' is a far more refined amp that is "more powerful" than its' ratings would lead one to believe, i would probably stick with the B&K. While the Forte' might work better for Classical and jazz, it will not come across as having the "drive" that the B&K tends to produce, especially when being pushed harder. The 1A is much more open and airy sounding but does not have the "warmth" or "body" that the B&K does. As to the B&K amp, it can be made into a very good sounding amp due to the VERY simplistic design. Even with the limited parts count that are in these amps, you can get rid of another 10% of them due to lack of necessity and sonic degradation. Upgrading the input cap makes a BIG difference and bypassing the the power supply caps also helps to clean up and open up the top end. Sean
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I have found with the Mods done to the amp give it is a very clean sounding amp.The Highend Treble region I want more emphasis placed with my next amp wth the ability to Drive insfficient speaker's up to 300watts.That is the rating which the M50's have.
The NEAR's I am using have a newly designed Woofer\Mid Driver that has an emphasis in the lower Bass which lends warmth to the overall sound.
I will stick with the B&K till I find a Substantial Bargin in the used sector for a World Class Amp.
The best playback system I have heard my speaker's with are an ARC Pre-Amp and a Mark Levinson amp with a Proceed CDP
Thx again! |
I would not recommend either amp. I don't think either amp could be truly comfortable with a 2 Ohm load in stock form. Perhaps the mods on the B&K have adressed this? |
Unsound, i did not even notice that in the original post. Thanks for pointing that out to both of us. Neither amp would be real happy with that type of a load in my opinion. Not only does the B&K not have enough power supply, it is seriously lacking heatsink for that type of operation. The Forte' would deal with it a little easier, but i don't think that it would have enough juice to get the job done and do it cleanly. Sean
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Are you both saying that a speaker that dips down to 2 ohms the B&K will not beable to handle cleanly? |
In stock form I think you would be asking a lot from these designs. The Forte 4A which was a latter version of the 1a might be able to pull this off (most people seem to prefer it's more open extended sound as well). The Forte is only 50 watts but your speakers are pretty efficient. It will depend on your room and desired volume. Forte also made 75 watt monos that were like the 4A. If I'm not mistaken the 4A could be had with balanced inputs but the monos (7's?) were only availibe with RCA's. |
P.S. the B&K M200 monos @ 200 watts per channel should be able to do handle the load. |
What an amp will "do" and how it operates optimally can be very different things. The ST-202 will "do" 2 ohm loads. In doing that, it will run QUITE hot, sound more smeared and less detailed, etc...
As to Unsound's suggestion, the M-200's are capable of appr 160 amps of output peak to peak. It will do 2 ohm loads no problem and maintain a similar "house sound" if you want to stick with B&K. Sean
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What I think I will do is talk to the designer of the speaker's first off.Great to be able to do that.From that I will search for the most musical amp for my taste.
In my mind at the moment McCormick,B&K,PS Audio or a similar amp comes to mind.
I have posted a 2ohm Amp Question in addition to this!
Thx for the help! |
Just a note of caution. Some, not all "designers" will will spout a very democratic view of their products. They will tell you that most anything will work with most of their products so as not to lay a foundation that might suggest that their products are fussy and jeapordize sales. I repeat not all designers, salesman and or manufacturers ar so self serving. Many are very sincere in their recommendations. Be wary of anyone who seems to jump on your proposal and tell you that everything you have is just perfect or suggest that you change everything (and buy from them or their "friends"). IMHO, like most things (with many exceptions, Ha! )the answer is usually some where in the middle. What will work and what is a beautiful synergy can be subtly and yet significantly different. |
Will take that into consideration,as I know that the designer knows my associated equiptment.I will confer with him to ask what he has for a system first! |
