When to Amp it Up?

Hello, and Happy Holidays ja_kub_sz!  Your amps should be just fine! Don't buy more just for the sake of  "new stuff."  Some would think your speakers could be upgraded. Have you tried swtiching cables? You can try some out from Used Cables.com and send them back if they don't improve things. And they're already "broken in." Understand that to get louder, when you already have 200 wpc available, you'd need to go to 1Kw or so. 800 watts is only 6 db louder than 200, and your wife will chase you out of the house at around 500 anyway. Perhaps you live alone? Just kidding.

I was a cable skeptic until I started experimenting. You can make your own very nice speaker cables for less than a dollar a foot plus connectors ($25 or so for locking bananas). Spectacular cable will run you $11/ft or so. USB cables are critical! Contact me if you like. I'm tryng to start a Ventura County Audio Society in California and have DIY info on such things.  Enjoy the music.

@boomerbillone funny you mentioned cables, I was looking into that as we speak and as far as usb-cables go I just grabbed two audioquest carbon cables for my Innuos and reclocker, I'll be honest it hasn't made a immense difference, but haven't been able to do solid listening session at decent volume yet.

What are peoples thoughts on XD amps? I now reading over all the different amp technologies and find XD (what I got now) very interesting being such a new development considering the history behind A/AB amps.

Don’t have the affaire. You stated “I love my system”. What else could you ask for. Always remind your self that it is about the music first and last. You are about to cheat on your love of music to go and have an affaire with the hot new flame named ”system” not knowing that system will use you abuse you and put you out to the curb. System is never satisfied and will drain your bank account all in the name of romance and never in the name of your true love music. Like all relationships it is ok to fantasize and dream about what could be better but to act will get you burned. In the end it is all about music and system will always be winking at you but know the motive behind system and stay with music and be happy.

I was driven to very high current / power amps for my love of electrostatic / planar speakers. Hence Pass designed amps. When I finally moved to traditional speakers I felt the possibilities opened up.

Higher quality solid state amps generally increase detail and slam… making them more dynamic. High quality tube equipment will increase detail and flesh out the midrange and bass… giving great nuance to these frequencies and bringing a better connection to the emotional content. Of course there is a lot of variability to what you get from either camp.

My most recent switch was from a Pass x350 to an Audio Research 160s (which I have operating in triode mode, so 75wpc). My speaker efficiency are 90db. While the slam dropped and up front, highlighted details… the change was jaw dropping. The bass and midrange opened up being completely fleshed out (bloom). The emotional connection… less analytical, so much more musical that any tendency to listening to the system instead of the music completely disappeared. I now listen to my system at least twice as much as I used to and have a hard pulling myself away.

While my comments on the solid state may sound attractive, there was no way that amp was going back in my system, ever. I got back tenfold for what I lost. To me the list for up front detail and slam came from college and led me to miss what was really important my system.