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Perfect speakers for audio Research Classic 30

Hello!
I really hope that you all would be fine in this tragic situation, at least in Italy.
I fortunately live in Venice which hasn't been hit so much by coronavirus.
Anyway I've relatives and friends in a lot of northenr Italy cities and every day it is a war bulletin.
So I'm a bit upset to talk so lightly about our futile passion...
Anyway...
I've recently bought a really perfect Classic 30 power amp, ad it's lovely but I think that it is a bit tense in properly driving my Proac D30R, I can perceive its very good qualities but finally it lacks in bass control and in definition.
It's very strange to say (?) but it works a lot better and apparently more easilly with no preamp, I mean with my PS Audio Direct Stream dac directly connected.
What are your suggestions for the ideal partners for the Classic 30?
I've no prejudice towards bookshelf, monitors, floorstanding and so on but I suspect that an easy load, good sensibility, mid sized bookshelf speakers could make perfectly the job.
Please consider that I live in Italy so please don't suggest exotic, local, not exported speakers, thank you very much.
Looking forward for your suggestions...
Mario 
shastasheen65
shastasheen65's avatar
shastasheen65 OP
20 posts
 
Dear  jjss49,

agin sorry for the confusion, I think that the matter is my poor written (and spoken as well...) english.

I think that the problem is not the Proac being high line or lower line, the Studio series is very good as well..., but simply that they probably need more driving capabilities than those of the Cl30.

I owned some years ago a pair of Melody power amps with KT88 but my experience stops there, I've red that in general 6550 are a bit more thin and dry in their sound than the KT88 but I don't know if this is a matter of control or their specific  personality, when the KT88 are more powerful and complete in the lower frequencies, this is the reason why I'm thinking to replace the current, old KT88 with new, good quality 6550.

Moreover the Classic 30 has been designed to work with 6550, not with KT88, although they are somehow compatible...

Mario 
shastasheen65's avatar
shastasheen65 OP
20 posts
 
!!!!
shastasheen65's avatar
shastasheen65 OP
20 posts
 
Any other suggestion?

Mario
chrissain
470 posts
 
What kind of music do you listen to? How large is the room? Floor standers or bookshelves? The new Revel F36 speakers are killer for 2k retail and are over 90db efficient.  I know multiple people who run revel and ARC to great results. 
bradrichards
1 posts
 
Hi Mario, congratulations on getting such a great tube amp. I have a Classic 60 at home and a D70 in my office. My suggestion for you is to try the Classic 30 driving the midrange and treble section of the Vandersteen Model 2 (c, ci, ce, ce signature, whatever) and get a modest but high-current solid state amp to power the woofers (Parasound Model 275 v.2 works great for this purpose).

I know Richard Vandersteen discourages horizontal bi-amping of the Model 2 for musical reasons, but as a professional symphonic musician, I couldn't disagree more strongly. The model 2 woofer section only reproduces the range between 26-600 Hz, so all you need there is good strong current delivery, so solid-state is ideal. Also, by removing the burden of this frequency range from the Classic 30, you'll let it do what it does best, which is reveal stunning levels of midrange and high-frequency detail with no strain or smearing whatsoever. In this combination, the Vandersteen Model II sounds better than I have ever heard it, and actually better than the old B&W 801 with Threshold amps that used to be used in so many studios as monitors.
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