Need Amp Advice
I might not be sure about M-60, but some years ago I tried to test serviced Bogen 35A on my Aerial 10T speakers and after 3 hours both channel tubes turned burning bright red color similar to the tip of steel needle above the stove gas burner. Connected it to my lab speakers b&W c201 and played it for couple of days no issue. |
Thank you all! Every time I read one of your replies I go out to research :-) I have to admit that some of the replies went above my head (yup, Bob Reynolds, I was talking about you ;-) On a separate note, do you guys have an opinion on the Devialet 200, one per speaker to be upgraded at a later stage (budget constraint) to the Devialet 400 (by adding a Slave unit to each). Thank you. |
Hey Dweller, I found both 250.8 and 350.8 that are within my budget. 3 questions: 1. Is there an advantage to using 2 monoblocks as opposed to a stereo amp? 2. Will those 2 amps be enough in terms of power for the 802's? 3. Currently I bi-amp the speakers using the Emotivas. In the case of the Pass Labs amps I will "only" be able to bi-wire. Am I losing something significant by doing so? thanks for your time! |
Monoblocks will normally have much bigger power supplies and are usually fully balanced/differential on the amplifier output stage. Stereo amps do not normally have balanced/differential output stages, but there are definitely exceptions. The Pass Labs could be fully balanced/differential, even though they are stereo (I know of at least one post, possibly by Bob Reynolds, that indicates a Pass Labs stereo was differential on the output). That being said, either the 250.8 or the 350.8 will most likely wipe the floor with the Emotiva amps, so I wouldn't worry that these are stereo or lower power rating. Check out the following thread: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/my-long-list-of-amplifiers-and-my-personal-review-of-each He does a massive list of amps and descriptions of their sonic signature. As far as the thread goes, the Pass ".8" models are near the top of the line. I would not bi-amp the speakers using the extra "bi-amp outputs" on the 8802a. This never works out best anyways. The Marantz processor (and any other processor) will send higher frequencies to the upper bi-amp output by comparing the used frequencies of the main output and subtracting them from the full-range signal. This results in lost resolution and the sound is just soft and not impactful. Better way to bi-amp is just to use a Y-splitter cable, but then you are messing with combining two amplifier input impedances and you may lose sound quality this way. It's better just to run an amplifier full-range to a speaker. Bi-wire is good to reduce the speaker cable resistance. |
