Tube + SS bi-amping B&W 803 D3s?
In the constant quest for incremental gains and chasing the high from first hearing these speakers at the dealer, I have been considering bi-amping my B&W 803 D3s with a tube amp for HF and using my current Parasound A21+ for LF. Anyone have experience with this type of setup or recommendations for tube amps that may be particularly worth looking at?
FWIW, I tend towards warmer sound. The speakers are crystal clear but the Parasound tends towards brighter sound with them. The addition of the C2500 and the SVS subs has definitely helped, but I get the sense there is still some performance left to find.
Current setup:
NAD C658 Streaming DAC
Pro-Ject Carbon Debut TT with Sumiko Wellfleet cartridge
McIntosh C2500 Pre-amp
B&W 803 D3 Floorstanding Speakers
SVS SB-3000 subs x2
@tomcarr Very interesting! Will try tonight and look forward to reporting back. |
Adjustment you made to limit the lower frequencies going through tube amplifier was very interesting. I have heard that if you let lower frequencies flow through the tube amplifier with the resulting output not using them because only the higher frequencies are going to the mid and tweeter drivers this can create a problem for the tube amp because It don't know what to do with these lower frequencies and it could lead to burning out the transformers. And that could be a serious problem because you don't wanna burn out your tube amplifiers |
@emergingsoul My motivation was the potential for improved clarity by way of reducing the demand on the amps and the midbass drivers from producing the large and power sucking lower frequencies, but if it prevents the transformers for letting out the magic smoke, all the better! The active crossover could have provided the high pass filtration to the tube amps with some added flexibility, but was concerned about the noise floor. The silver mica caps seemed the simplest approach with good signal integrity and low noise. Really happy with that simple mod. |
