The Revels I paired with the Levinson were the F30’s. It wasn’t necessarily my distaste for the Revels, I thought they were fine. I was disappointed with the fact that I just paid 6 grand for an amp that would clip when i really wanted to rock out. That’s the scoop with the Revels folks. 100 watts of solid state gets gobbled up quick. I have a MC402 McIntosh with 400x2 for my Piegas and I can clip that thing!
I'm guessing stand mount like some of you have suggested would be perfect. 805's
Also, as soon I get the amp, I'll fire up my Klipsch CF4's to see how those mate.
Keep the suggestions and comments coming!
Best low budget speakers for a Levinson 383 Integrated amp
Howdy folks!
I bought a Levinson 383 integrated years ago when it came out in 2000. I paired it with a pair of Revels and although it sounded good, not the perfect fit. Sold amp and speakers to sis and moved on. It worked perfect for her. After her recent passing, the amp is coming back home. Just curious what speakers you might suggest pairing it with. Nothing will replace my McIntosh Piega C10LTD combo in the main room but would like to hear it paired with the right speakers. That amp new was $6000 new. 100 watts.
Something on the used market. They don't even need to look pretty just sound perfect. $2000 tops used is plenty. Thanks for your suggestions!
Brent
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A pair of Fyne Audio F500SP speaker are right at your $2K budget. Have the F-702s and love the sound—wonderful tonal qualities and imaging. They are made in the UK, Scotland, I think. I may get a pair myself in the near term to replace my office Infinity Modulus sats (the Modulus made before Infinity went mass market) I purchased in 1990 and were replaced by the F-702s in my main system. |
@yogiboy I'm by no means an expert on this kind of stuff. So, I can't explain, from an electrical engineering vantage point, why this is. I've had experts explain the science to me and read some stuff about this, but I still don't get it. However, from personal seat-time experience auditioning speakers & power sources, I've found that less than 8 Ohm nominal load speakers, even very efficient or sensitive ones, tend to crave current in order to perform their best. Although the Levinson 383 seems to have a quite robust power supply (i.e. double the watts from 8 Ohm to 4 Ohm), I don't know if it could generate enough current to make most less than 8 Ohm nominal load speakers in the OP's budget range truly sing? Would it be enough to drive a lot of less than 8 Ohm nominal load speakers? Yes. However, there is a big sound quality difference between just having enough juice (i.e. current) to drive some less than 8 Ohm nominal load speakers and making them sound their best. Here's just one recent example of what I mean. I won't cite all the specs involved here. You can look them up on the web if you are so inclined. Several years ago, during a several months' quest to update my two-channel system speakers, I fell in love with a pair of Aerial Acoustic 6T (i.e. 4 Ohm speakers). When I heard them through a big MAC 75-watt tube amp with power (i.e. current) to spare, they sounded just heavenly. However, when we switched to a 100-watt MAC SS integrated without Autoformer, it took about 5 seconds for my ears to hear the little MAC just couldn't deliver enough juice (i.e. current) to make those Aerial sing. It had enough to drive them and still make them sound very nice indeed, but not enough to squeeze everything out of them that they were/are designed to deliver. I've had the same experiences, over the years, with other mismatched amps & speakers. |
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