Simaudio W-5 or Pass X-250 for Dynaudio Special 25

Stiltskin,

Slightly OT, but did you by any chance audition the Confidence C1 as well? When I purchased my Special 25's the dealer had C1's on hand but he thought the 25 would be a better speaker for my room (which at the time it was) so I never listened to them. However, since then I have heard a lot of good things about the C1's.

Thanks for your imput on the amps. At this point I am leaning a bit towards the W-5, mainly because it has a good reputation of having synergy with Dyns.

Hi Tim916,Is your set up home theater?,or both, audio and h.t.? Spending money on a Sim W5 or a Pass amp to drive the Dyna 25s and using any DVD/cd player as your primary source.... You will never realize what these speakers and amps can do in a proper set up.You all ready have a truly great speaker, the 25s are far beyond the C1,did your dealer know what you are using for a front end?Tim maybe you are looking at new front end too,? I dont know? If not,maybe you should look for a better dealer.

My set up is for both HT and 2-ch. The DVD-3800 actually acts as a transport for the AVP2 which has pretty good DAC's built into it. It will work as an analog preamp but in order to do that I would have to turn off the sub output which would screw things up for HT. I realize that I am compromising 2-channel sound with this type of system but I use it for 50/50 music and movies so that is ok. Being in a large room (21 x 15 with 11ft ceiling) I figure the 25's might be able to use some extra juice.

Hi Tim,Your McCormack is a darn good amp,at a 100 watts plus it should drive the 25s silly,though it may not be a good match up for the Dynas.Aroom that size,near feild listening for any speaker of this size is a good way to start,how loud do you need it? I have heard the 25s driven with 30 watts per ,however 60 watts per and up will shake things up better.If your heart is set on a Sim amp, the W-3 will do a [very good] job, period.The money saved could go toward a Sim audio cd and or a Sim dvdcd player.There are afew members here using Dynaudio 25s,hunt them down and see what they have for system recipes.... Go slow and good luck.....