Jeff Rowland

Ricred1,
great! thanks for the update. looks like you are good to go w/ the M525. You now know that you won't have a melted output stage with the Aerial 7T's 1.5 ohms in bridged mode.

Still......I would give heed to Almarg's suggestion (which was also on my mind but Almarg beat me to it) of using 1 stereo M525 for each speaker in a vertical biamped format. The amp will not see 3 Ohms (because it will be running in plain old stereo mode) & you will have 1 dedicated amp for driving the bass for each channel.
Since you will have 2 M525s you can try the bridged mode & the vertical biamped mode. Yeah, you will need 4 interconnects pre-power & 4 speaker cables to try the vertical biamped mode.
Let us know how you fare. Thanks.

What is the MSRP of a Capri S2 and two 525 amplifiers compared to that of a Continuum S2?

+1 Bombaywalla (with a slight qualification as described below).

Richard, I see that you are using some rather expensive interconnects and speaker cables. In part for that reason I would reiterate my earlier comment to the effect that you wouldn't have to double up on interconnect cables to implement a vertical biamp configuration. You would just use a short XLR y-cable at the inputs of the amp, such as one of those I linked to earlier, in conjunction with the same interconnect you would use for bridged mode.

You may have seen people claim at times that use of y-cables or splitters in their system resulted in some amount of sonic degradation. My strong suspicion is that in most of those cases the reason for that was not the y-cables or splitters themselves, but rather the inability of the component supplying the signal to drive the two sets of load impedances that were involved, and in many cases two sets of cables as well, in an optimal manner. That won't be an issue in your situation.

For example, it is sometimes reported that poor results are obtained when a y-adapter or splitter is used to route the outputs of a preamp to both a power amp and a powered sub. In those situations it tends not to be realized that the capacitance of the cable to the sub, which is often substantial due to the length that may be involved, will affect the signals received by the main power amp just as if it were added to the capacitance of the cable to the main power amp. It also tends not to be realized that the line-level input impedance of many and probably most powered subs is quite low, which will also affect the signals seen by the main power amp, especially if the preamp's output impedance is high. Yet the y-adapter itself will often be blamed for the less than optimal results.

None of those kinds of effects will be applicable in your situation, given also that the RCA outputs of the Bricasti DAC, which I assume you are using to drive your subs, are driven by output stages that are fully independent of those driving the DAC's XLR outputs (that often not being the case with lesser designs).

Finally, the very low output impedance of the Bricasti DAC, the fact that its connections to the amps are balanced, and the relatively short lengths that are involved, all work in the direction of reducing sensitivity to interconnect cable effects and differences. Including the effects of balanced y-cables that may be in the path.

Regards,
-- Al

Macro, here are list prices....

Capri Series II Stereo Preamplifier $3,950
Model 525 Stereo Power Amplifier $4,500
Continuum S2 integrated: $9500

Richard has indicated that he will be driving M525s directly from his Bricasti M1 DAC, sens line stage. G.

I also agree with the vertical biamp recommendation. I do this in my own system and get great results. All you need are 2 stereo amps (exactly the same), and a pair of speakers with 2 sets of binding posts. You have both so its just a matter of making the connections and trying it out. I'm kind of surprised Rowland didn't mention this option when you called them.