Best Amp for Timbre, Depth and Spatial Resolution?

If you plan to keep the B&Ws, the Ayre is likely one of the better choices. This speaker does not play well with tubes due to the nature of its load (4 ohms in the bass, 8 ohms in the mids and highs). Four ohm loads should be avoided with tube amps even if they have a 4 ohm tap- almost any output transformer will loose a good octave of bandwidth off of the bottom end, simply by going for 8 to 4 ohms and the distortion is usually higher.

If you really want serve your amplifier investment dollar, the speaker should be either 8 or 16 ohms for best results! Even if you have a transistor amp, if sound **quality** is your goal, you will do better with a higher impedance speaker as the amp will make less distortion (read: smoother, more transparent). If sound pressure is your goal, there is a slight advantage to four ohm speakers, assuming the efficiency is otherwise the same.

The 802N has a very old tweeter what can become harsh. So you need a warm souding amp. And you a lot of power and a high amperage to control the paper units of the 802N.

I should have asked in my 1st post, but what is it that your system lacks? Is there something you need to improve or are you generally happy and just want to improve without loosing what you already have?

Once again, I disagree with the assertion Atmasphere makes again in his last paragraph.

Based on my experience, I think that Ralph (Atmasphere) is spot on with his comments in the last paragraph of his response.

Johnmc67 - if you are looking for a substantive change or improvement in your system's sound (timbre, depth and spatial response) I would suggest that you consider different speakers. Not that I'm suggesting that there is anything wrong or lacking with your N802s, but the most effective way to make a major change in the sound of your system is by changing the components that actually generate the sound and interact with the room.

If you had an electric car and were looking to improve the ride to be smoother, would you first replace the tires or the voltage regulator?

Bill