Matching an amp to speakers for beginners?

Hello Petequad,

My suggestion would be that you make your speaker selection first, as that's the most important choice, and will dictate the direction of your amplifier choice. Once you've chosen speakers, you'll know how much power you need, and whether you need a high current amp, or maybe a tube amp. At that point you'll be able to look for an amp that synergizes particularly well with your speakers.

Being a dealer I have all sorts of ideas on how you should spend your money, but unfortunately they all involve tradeoffs. The audiophile journey is one of discovering what elements take us deeper into the musical experience, and what areas we can accept compromises in - and it's an individual thing. I may be very tolerant of poor imaging, but very intolerant of boxy colorations - and you may be just the opposite.

Since you don't have access to dealers where you can go and listen at length, I'm going to play "20 questions" with you (well, almost). Here are eighteen speaker characteristics that may or may not be important to you - make any comments you like as to which ones matter. You don't have to comment on all of them (or any of them!). I'm just trying to get a feel for what your priorities are. Of course you want it all (we all do), but note that some of these characteristics are mutually exclusive, so tradeoffs are inevitable.

1. Timbre (the natural sound of voices and instruments).
2. Clarity & nuance (you can hear all the details).
3. Dynamic contrast (impact and liveliness).
4. Superb soundstaging for a single listener.
5. Good soundstaging over a wide listening area.
6. Natural-sounding bass.
7. Extreme deep bass extension.
8. Unobtrusive size and/or visual appeal.
9. Sounds great at low volumes.
10. Sounds great at medium volumes.
11. Sounds great at high volumes.
12. Forgiving of less-than-ideal recordings and sources.
13. Ruthlessly accurate and revealing.
14. Freedom from little colorations that remind you you're listening to boxes, not live music.
15. Works well in less-than-optimum room or location.
16. Non-fatiguing over long listening sessions.
17. Recreates the immediacy of a good jazz club.
18. Recreates the lushness of a good symphony concert hall.

Also, add any other characteristics that are especially important to you, and any other considerations you'd want to take into account. We'll try to come up with suggestions that will at least be in the ballpark.

The Quest is half the fun. Thanks for including us in yours!

Best wishes,

Duke

It's hard to come up with a response with such good advise.

Definatly audition all the speakers you can. Remember one thing that you are listening to a whole system the speakers the electronics and the cables. Be prepared to go with the whole system you listen to, to select the speakers you want or you may be doing alot of experimenting when you get your speakers home. Which by the way is the fun part.

At your price point make sure your dealer will let you audition your electronics at home with your speakers. Some integrated amps have a pre bypass switch so you can take the front out of your HT setup and use the integrated as a amp only for the front.

Happy experimenting

Rember to take the system as a whole.

I will say that I think I've convinced myself to go with floorstanding speakers it's what I initially wanted anyway). Also, much of this may be moot since my purchasing options around this area seem to be limited. That said, I'll play 20 questions :) Much of this is stuff I haven't even thought about, so it should help me just to rate these things. Rather than write a huge book, I'm going to rate each item on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being high)

1. Timbre (the natural sound of voices and instruments). This is important, I'll give it a 7.
2. Clarity & nuance (you can hear all the details). This is very important, I'll give it a 9.
3. Dynamic contrast (impact and liveliness). I'm not sure about this one... I'm going to leave it alone.
4. Superb soundstaging for a single listener. I'd rather it appeal to more than one specific location in the room, I'll give this a 3.
5. Good soundstaging over a wide listening area. This is what I'd like, although the room is not so large, I'll give this a 7.
6. Natural-sounding bass. Medium importance, I'll give it a 5.
7. Extreme deep bass extension. This is not super important to me, I'l give it a 4.
8. Unobtrusive size and/or visual appeal. This used to be very important, but now that I've decided to put these speakers in the same room as my HT, I'll put this as a 2.
9. Sounds great at low volumes. I'm not sure if my ratings for these three will be mutually exclusive, but I do want it to sound good when it is on low, I'll give this a 6.
10. Sounds great at medium volumes. A 4.
11. Sounds great at high volumes. Imoprtant, but not as important as number 9, I'll give it a 5. Actually, I want it to sound great all the time! :)
12. Forgiving of less-than-ideal recordings and sources. This may be somewhat important to me because my source probably won't be up to snuff, at least at first. I'll give this a 7.
13. Ruthlessly accurate and revealing. Not that important, a 3.
14. Freedom from little colorations that remind you you're listening to boxes, not live music. This is important, I'll give this an 8.
15. Works well in less-than-optimum room or location. Hopefully my room will be ok enough, but I dont want this stuff to sound like junk if I ever move it - I'll give it a 5.
16. Non-fatiguing over long listening sessions. That would be bad! I'll give this a 7.
17. Recreates the immediacy of a good jazz club. I love this effect, I'll give it a 9.
18. Recreates the lushness of a good symphony concert hall. Nice to have, but not as important as seventeen, I'll say a 6.

The only thing I'd like to add is that a big consideration for me is availability. I welcome talk or suggestions about the perfect system for me, but if the only dealer is in Texas and they don't do internet orders, it probably won't be that useful (except for the interesting reading), unless you think there's a chance I can pick it up used somewhere.

Thanks again for any discussion or advice.

Regards,
PeteQuad

Petequad,

You mentioned Odyssey and that is a great way to go. I'm one of many happy Odyssey owners. Klaus is a great guy to deal with. If you haven't called him I'd do so. He won't steer you wrong or recommend products that won't fit your needs. He has a complete system set-up that he's selling as a package deal. One for $1500 and one for $4500. Stereophile just gave him a good review at the recent HE2004 show http://www.stereophile.com/news/0523he2004d3/ .

Also if you haven't been to this Odyssey forum you can get a ton of information from current users. http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewforum.php?f=10 . I spent a couple days reading through everything and finally took the plunge.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

Regards,
LJ

PeteQuad,

Ok I will be the first to take the plung. (Pete be warned mentioning the following speakers in certain circles is taboo)

For floor standers I would go one of two routes first a used pair of B&W CDM9NT's ($2600.00 new, they are discontinued) with an execelent pair of speaker cables. I think they are capable of giving you what you are looking for at a modest price. For your room size they are not a large floor stander and provide good imaging for the front on HT from various sitting positions. They are execelent in the highs and mids when mated with the right electronics. They only have 6" base drivers so the punch of the sub base is somewhat lacking. They are very detailed and netural in other words what you put in is what you will get out. Some would say they are a little forward in the mids.

The second is the B&W Nautilus 803 ($5000.00 new) The only thing I can say is give them a listen. My experience is limited to B&W, DynAudio and Sonus Faber.