Speaker Pairing With Amplifier


Hello everyone! Just joined. I recently just bought a pair of MartinLogan Motion 35XTi speakers and I’m enjoying them, however my amplifier is... A bit lackluster for them. I’m running a Technics SA-R230 AVR from the late 80s, it has enough power, but it’s just not driving them to the full potential.

 

I’m thinking if I go vintage of getting a Harman Kardon Citation 12, or going modern and getting a PM6007 or PM7000N. Maybe a Rega io, was curious if anyone has some real world experience with good pairings for ribbon tweeter speakers. They can be a bit... Picky.

 

Wondering if anyone has any recommendations to go with?

 

Thanks everyone and I’m happy to be here.

 

128x128astal

you wrote AVR, which means audio video receiver. you also mentioned it has enough power.

a quick look shows it is an am/fm receiver, not an avr, and has only 50 wpc into 8 ohm speakers. It is not rated to drive 4 ohm speakers, see the back plate: 8 to 16 ohm range is shown.

your speakers are high sensitivity, however they are 4 ohm speakers, not 8 ohm. thus you need to look at an amp's rating at 4 ohms, AND, it it has 4 ohm connections for 4 ohm speakers.

I agree, get more power, jason's recommendation is 300 wpc into 8 ohms

power needs double for each + 3db of sound level, so 50wpc, 100wpc, 200wpc, 400wpc. each increment only providing +3db increase.

IOW, don't think a 70 or 100 wpc is a LOT more power than 50 wpc. Thus, for those speakers, not necessarily to get louder, but to have the power/reserves to drive them, and handle instantaneous peaks, 300 wpc is not too much.

that parasound amp is expensive, perhaps the best choice if that price is in your budget.

to get into more affordable solutions, I would look for a less costly solution, perhaps 150 wpc into 8 ohm, with 4 ohm taps, particularly the type of amp that doubles it's power into 300 wpc at 4 ohms.

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To increase the sound quality I would recommend going to an integrated audio amp. AVRs have too many functions in one box… and particularly older stuff. Given your interest in old stuff…I would look at NAD and Rotel integrated amps. They will supply far greater current and sound quality… I would only consider wattage within these brands because wattage is not really the parameter to judge the power of the amp… it is current. NAD and Rotel have competed on real power and sound quality for decades. Most of the rest of them on how many cool knobs and functions they had.

the 80s wasn't a great decade, kind of the forgotten one, in the age of Hi-Fi

I wonder how recently you bought the MartinLogans?

I would go with a Rotel or NAD integrated amp from Crutchfield, if you don't like it, return it. And then you will have to decide about your speakers :)