2. amps-preamps
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Still working on choosing a power amp

System: Rogue Audio Perseous Pre amp, Rogue Audio ST-90 Power amp, Krell SACD Standard, Project RM 10 TT, B&W 803s speakers, Staight wire cables. Have been researching options for a power amp. Thought about Rogue M-150 monoblocks and some others. Would there be a sound conflict if I use the Tube preamp w/ a solid state power amp? It seams there are more options for higher power amps that are SS. Therefore more headroom. So, what's the deal? Do you loose the tube sound?
dougdubin
elite_audio_video
9 posts
 
In a previous system, I used the Krell KAV Series Stereo Components (SACD Standard, KAV-280p & KAV-2250 - via balanced) with a pair of B&W 803s and Straightwire Cables, and it was an excellent sounding system. I would highly recommend trying the Krell KAV-2250, the 803s sounded great when driven by this amplifier, with excellent dynamics, imaging & bass/weight + smooth highs.
musicnoise
377 posts
 
suggest using the mc402 on the 4 ohm taps for the 803s - that is what I do and it sounds great - plenty of power - I am using a mcintosh ss preamp - compared to the mac tubes and the audio research tubes - the mc220 would be my choice for a tube preamp - it is kind of 'muddy' but not as much as the audio research I listened to and more than the mcintosh 2200 or 2300 - which to me just did not sound that much different than the SS. If you like the tube sound, might as well go with a preamp that really has the tube sound - to my ears the audio research was just too far in that direction. I would definitely demo the 220. Anyway I would not move off of the 402 - fabulous amp - my feel is if you want tubes in your system, go with them at the preamp - the 402 is not going to do anything other than amplify what is fed to it - if you feed it a tube sounding signal, you'll still get the tube sound - Cannot go wrong with the 803 in my estimation - the only other speakers that I found as a close second or maybe even better were the Dali Mk II 400's - those were nice - just could not make the move to a ribbon - the Genelec monitors were also nice - it just got to be too difficult to find a pair big enough without driving a couple of states away.
wireless200
415 posts
 
The sound of the c2200 and c2300 may not be much different than ss but the ease of resale is better and depreciation is less. Something to keep in mind.
dob
577 posts
 
Hello Dougdubin,

I have 802N and the best power amp by far is Spectron Musician III SE. You can match it with geood tube preamp as well. I know other owners of B&W 802 and 803 who have Spectron and extremely happy!

Good Luck!
Rafael
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