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Dynaudio Focus 110.....Integrated amp????

Over the last year I have had several pairs of reasonably good Hi Fi speakers, Merlin's, Fritz Carbon 7, and Dynaudio Focus 110. The Focus 110 is my favorite based on my room size and listening habits. I have run into a bit of a problem though....amplification. For two years now I have been happy with the entry level Nad 356 Bee. It's musical rather than clinical, has heavy bass, and decent sound stage, and it does a good job driving the 110's. I have decided though that I want more transparency, tighter bass, and bigger soundstage with better highs. Recently I bought a Marantz PM 8004 and was blown away by the huge soundstage, warm detailed midrange, and extended highs. Up until this amp I have hated an extended upper range. I though I had found the perfect amp until I started to pay attention to the bass....it's just not there. After trying out several T and class D amps, the Virtue M9001, 30 Watt Nuforce, and Nad D7050 I am convinced that 110's need a lot of power or an amp that has a large damping factor. The Virtue, Nuforce, and Nad have very large damping factors and control the 110's very we'll putting out lots of tight bass at moderate listening levels. What I am hoping for is that maybe there is a Marantz PM 8004 type amp with the bass control of a class D amp. I'm open to any suggestions, would maybe upgrading to the PM-14S1 do the job??
djverne
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,370 posts
 
Creek Destiny and Simaudio i5.3 sounded great with the Dynaudios I tried them with. I have not listened to my Krell s300-i with my Dynaudios but I would guess that would be a good match as well. I think the Simaudio and Dynaudio had a pretty great synergy
xti16
1,525 posts
 
When I had my Dyn C1's I had a Bryston B100sst - Naim XS - Octave V40se V70se and a V110. I've also listened to the Naim Supernait. All extremely good matches for Dyns. Even though the Bryston had the highest power rating (180W @4ohm) it was my least favorite. Somewhat musical but dry sounding. The Octave and Naim have better 'control' of the music. With the Octave being a tube integrated I can swap some tubes and change up the sound (more musical to more linear like almost SS sounding).
valinar
471 posts
 
I had a pair of dyn focus 140 in the past. I used a mf a308 integrated and a308 cd player. That was a very good combination. At the time I had a sim i5 in another system. I set up the i5 with the 140's just for a listen. At lower levels it was ok, but at medium to higher volumes the i5 ran out of steam. I think the mf a308 series of components was one of their best, build quality and sound. If found used at a reasonable price, it is a hard to beat match for the dyn 110's.
djverne OP
77 posts
 
Got a Exposure 2010s2 a few days ago....wow. This is definitely a different type of sound. Tons and tons of low end control.Review to follow!!
djverne OP
77 posts
 
This amp is so punchy and fast... The best way I can describe it with the 110's is snappy and extremely dynamic. Forward sounding is another term that comes to mind. As you turn the volume up the sound stage grows in width and height, but the sound also crawls to you dynamically in depth.... No so great if ya have a sleeping 10 month old : ( I have heard the the term hard sounding used to describe this amp...I think this is accurate with some source material, speaker dependent, and room acoustics sometimes. The sound is liquid smooth but can be hard if the source material is laking in micro dynamics. I can't help to think how well this would pair with Merlin speakers if you are not wanting to go the tube route. Punchy and rhythmic at lower levels.. can't see imagine Naim Xs being more rhythmic. I"m on the fence.... I miss the high freq detail and warm midrange of the Marantz pm 8004,but the exposure is so punchy and gripping as you turn the volume up. Maybe I will use the Marantz pm 8004 as a preamp to the exposure and see what sound I get .... : o
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