Amplifiers for B&W 803D/802D

Audphile brings up a good point about B&W's dipping down to 3ohm territory. The MC402 has 3 sets of taps on the back, 2ohm, 4ohm and 8ohm. Although B&W rates their speakers at 8ohm, you would not want to use the 8ohm taps, rather start with 4ohm; McIntosh recommended this to me when I was using B&W speakers because of the way they behave.
I never tried the 2ohm taps with my 802D's, which I now regret in light of the results another poster in another thread got with his (older) 801's when switching to the 2ohm taps.

I suspect your dealer could get some fine results with the Classe gear he sells; just let your ears be the judge.

Spectron Musician 3 SE - my friend with 802D has it. Midrange lush like (first class) tube amp and it is probably the best amplifier to drive speakers with difficult load- it has increadible control, stable up to 0.1 Ohms load, headroom with 3500 watts peak power over 500 msec.

Do internet research - it drive Martin Logan Summit, Audio Analyses ribbons, Magnaplanar 20.1 and non plananr like MBL 101

In January 2008 TAS issue there was excellent review, forgot what speakers were used and I know that in month or two Stereo Times will have rave review - speakers Apogees

I think with your speakers you must investigate this amplifier
Good Luck
Rafael

Statusnine, A few things in MHO. I've owned B&W's now for 8 years. I've heard all of the 800 series and matched with different amps. I would say don't buy 803D or 802D unless you can buy the proper amps to push them. Good power and plenty of reserve is the way to make B&W's really sing. Everyone I've ever read or heard say they don't like B&W hasn't given them the power they deserve and speaker placement is going to be very critical. Its hard to listen to speakers at a dealer in my opinion because most of them don't seem to take the time to get the best placement. No rotel is going to give these speakers what the need, please don't get a rotel for 800 series speakers they deserve better. Rotel is distriuted by B&W not owned by B&W and may sound fine for some of thier lesser speakers but not the 800'series. I would stick with mono blocks to be sure you give them power and something in the 350 to 500 watt range. Classe A cam 400's or 350's (new or used) and in the mcintosh the 501 monoblocks. Also not sure what the rest of your system is but make sure you have good source components as either of the speakers you are looking to get deserve it. FYI the 802D will be my next speaker unless they reinvent the series between now and when I buy and the three amps I listed are the ones in the running to be matched up with them.
beerdraft

Beerdraft... I totally agree. I just returned from listening to the 802D's with the Classe Cam-400 monos. Extraordinary combination. Having heard it, I would now never spend the $$ on 802D's without high end mono amplification and am no longer considering Rotel. Would still love to hear 802D's with the Mcintosh monos but really hard to get that combination since the B&W delaers don't sell Mcintosh. Hard to imagine the Macs could sound any better than the Classe 400 monos. I also noticed a huge difference from Rotel preamp with Classe preamp so I agree that all compnents really need to be top notch. Next up, may try some tube pre-amps with the CAM400's. Thanks for your input.

One other thought.....I've read some comments that people can't hear the difference between the 803D and 802D. I agreed when listening with Rotel 5 x 200 amps...but...when using Classe amps, either 200w/ch or the 400 monos, the differences became much more striking and the 802's blew the 803's away.