I would suggest you look at AVM. I heard the A3s at NY Audio Show driven by AVM gear in 2018 and it was spectacular. The Evoluton A5.2 would be an excellent choice. 185w and price point is $5995 without the optional DAC and Phonostage.
Full disclosure, I am an AVM dealer.
I would also think Naim, Pass, Accuphas and Luxman would all be good options. I am not sure I would try and drive those A3s with either 30 or 60w. Bass response will be mediocre with those power levels. |
Add Ayre and Simaudio to your list.
Strangely Alan Shaw of Harbeth also likes Hegel, but I've never been a fan. |
Thank you all for these suggestions. The vibe I get is 100W + to do these speakers justice. Even Class A under 100W need not apply.
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@twoleftears I am using a Hegel H160 to power my Harbeth 30.1, and find it to be excellent. I did not buy the Hegel because of Alan Shaw's high opinion of the manufacturer, but it is interesting to note what he likes so much about their amps. From the Harbeth forum in May: My position on Hegel is abundantly clear. It is the only hifi amp I have ever measured in my lab that has what I consider to be a proper gain structure throughout.
In layman's language that means that with a 'hot' source pumping audio volts into the input channel it is practically impossible to clip or overload the input. That indicates to me a mature, pragmatic real-world approach to the circuit design in a market where far too many amps have input stage clipping evidenced by the ridiculously low setting of the volume control (typically 10 o'clock or lower) at which the output clips. Hence a hard, hard, grainy sound. Indeed, I'd suspect that the extreme sensitivity of the volume control (hardly on, really loud) is prima facie evidence of clipping.
I have been playing P3XD over the last days via one of my H390s and with the volume at about 60/99, I have lots of power reserve and a clean, loud, unclipped sound. |
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