How many amps should I buy for my speakers?

Norma

I was just kidding, I,ve never known anyone that had Cerwin-Vega's for fronts and stuck B&W 805's in the rear..you may be a first!

Your future plan is very solid..I agree with everyone else on the more power is better than less power.

Dave

B&W nautilus need power. Lots of it. I am of the opinion that the Nautilus Series have a much better visual presence than audio quality. The smaller B&Ws are fine but it takes real passion to stick with Nautilus. there are alternatives.

Of course, you were asking about an amp........

Having lived with the N805's for almost 5 years now I like to add some observations gleened from lots of experimentation and equipment changes.

1. Take the grills off when listening. This does wonders for the width of the soundstage.

2. The more power (current) the better.

3. Very revealing of downstream equipment.

4. Use good mass loaded (heavy) stands that are coupled to the floor.

5. Better to bi-wire.

6. Sit with your ear level with the tweeter.

7. Spend a little time tuning the room. Damp the first and second reflection points.

8. Give them some room to breath; about 3 feet into the room is good.

When you get them set up correctly they really sing. My N805sig's image sooo good that I like to trick people into thinking that they are listening to surround sound. Anyway, this tread was about amplifiers and I've gotten side tracked.

Amps that I've used with great success with my B&W's are Scientific audio research labs MOS400, Aragon palladium mono's and aragon 8008BB.

If your going to do the surround thing then I would say try one of the 5 channel amps from the following manufacturers: Macintosh, Aragon, Rotel, adcom or sherbourn. I've only had experience with the Mac amplifier but I will be trying the Sherbourn 7/2100 in my rig next week. I'm getting the urge to simplify. I'm currently using 6 amps for seven channels.

A used Parasound HCA 1206 gives you 135 watts/channel into six channels at 8 ohms (200 at 4), and you can bridge four of the channels into two channels for 350/ch. This is a good value at used prices of 700 to 900. I used one for years and finally sold it as I slimmed down my front room theatre system to speakers requiring much less power.

Hi Norma,

I'm running My surround(7.1) with 600w/ch(Bryston 14BSST) for front speakers, and 160w/ch(Bryston(BSST) l/r side, l/r rear,center. My speakers are B & W in wall equivalents of the 803s and HTM1 center with four CDm SNTs for surround. I agree that you are more likely to damage your speakers through clipping with too little rather than over driving them with too much power.