What amp for B&W 804?

best for the b & w.....rotel, bryston, audio research....

B&W were paired with Classe gear at my local shop (that eventually moved toward home theater and recently went out of business). I seem to remember that B&W acquired Classe...both the N803 and N804's were very good, but out of my league price wise at the time.

Classe is correct but if you want to save some dollars, try Anthem. There statement amps sound great.Both A and P series.P2 meaning 2 channel would be awesome or A series(less money) I am currently running an A5 ( 5 channel.at $2400) with a set of Matrix 802 series 3. I have never heard them sound as sweet as this. Cabling is an issue as well, I found that cables made a huge difference.I tried Monster 1000, Audioquest Cobra, MIT avt1, but the best was Transparent Musiclink Plus and Super. The supers expanded the soundstage immensely. Super is the way to go.

Being a past owner of B&W804's I can say that they are quite transparent and sound remarkably better with good quality electronics (not necessarily expensive ones) with at least 100 watts. I wouldn't classify the 804s as a rich sounding speaker but rather neutral, lean, and clean sounding. In comparison the 803s with its larger cabinet is warmer and more full body sounding.

I've used Jeff Rowland 201 (250w), Rotel RB1090 (380w) and even the Leben CS600 (Tube Integrated 32watts). Both the JR and Rotel amps provided very good bass definition and control with the JR amp sounding more refined overall. The Leben with its lower power sounded surprisingly good particularly in the mids and highs albeit less bass impact.

Moving from the mac in the direction of classe or bryston will exacerbate those effects that you found unappealing when you moved from the prima luna. If you liked the prima luna sound, move back or move to any tube preamp that is touted as being warm. What you are missing is the type of harmonics added by the tube distortion.

Thanks fellows. Would I go wrong with a Bel Canto or a Passe? Appreciate your redsponse. J North1178

Go back to a tube amp but with more power. VAC, VTL, Cary, and Quicksilver amps are available with 100+ watts used in your price range. Solid state will always be thin and dry sounding with N804.

The Bel Canto R500 Mk.2 -- being slightly on the warmer side of neutral -- is the only reasonably priced class D amp that I would suggest for driving the B&W 804s. As these speakers appear to be on the leaner side of neutral, there is the danger that slightly lean sounding class D amps like the JRDG 201 may exacerbate the situation. In the regular SS domain, I suspect that some of the smaller Pass XA or Aleph models may also work very nicely with the 804s. In the tube amp domain you may try to look at classic amp designs that fit in the warmer side of neutral.

Have you consider that the issue may be with wiring instead of electronics? What power cords, interconnects, and speaker wires are you using?

Guido

I enjoyed the Ayre V-3 (no longer in production so you would have to buy used) with the B&W N804 and the Ayre AX-7e integrated with the B&W 804S in setups I've owned. Either of those (the AX-7e can be used purely as an amp) or a used V-5xe would be a good fit.

Many people in this forum said B&W + Mcintosh = good match. I'm gonna buy a MA6900 for my B&W 805s soon. This thread makes me confuse