Looking for power amp with warm, smooth sound

The suggestions for new speakers might be easier. Can you suggest some brands and models I should look at for a warm, smooth, non-fatigueing speaker??

I believe it's more than the amp selection here that points to brightness.

I offered up the Rotel as a BTW mention. I had the rotel playing a pair of VR4 JR with a BAT VK5i preamp. the VR4 JR speakers have a lot of top end energy and regardless the SS amp I tried with them I had to keep the back tweet turned off... even with a BAT vk500 BP. there's not a bright bone in the 500's body!

Cabling played a big part in taming and straightening out brightness. the other major item in controling top end energy was power filtration.

I had a pair of Monitor Audio Gold 60s + a Krell KAV 250 + Sony 444es HT receiver as a preamp for a time then too. this was the most analytical, sterile, yet clear as a bell sounding rig I've owned. The cabling was crap. there was no power filtering going on, and there might even have been a ground loop issue for all I knew then.

ADding another upscale proc/pre helped. in the end I sold it all off... save the Sony receiver. I feel now though, had I investigated cabling and conditioning sooner, some of that rig might have stayed around lots longer... conditioning andd cabling are just that big a help.

However, given the choice between either getting another amp or changing out speakers, actually I'd do both eventually, but first I'd try something lots cheaper... a power filter like a PSA upc 200 FOR A COUPLE HUNDRED or so, instead of major changes first... and/or a power cord swap out. Then maybe do other big changes. that might well be all you need for now.

Addressing the incoming power in any rig is usually a great idea... though many attribute power line issues to a lack of component synergy or poor componnets instead.

Vandersteen and Quad come up often as "warmer" speaker suggestions. I only have experience with the Quads, which I'm more than happy with at the price point. MUCH better imaging, although I still found them a little bright until I paired them with a warmer sounding amp as well.

I'm not here to bash on MA and tell you to sell your gear, but I owned two pair of MA speakers over the past 7 years, both had the gold metallic dome tweeter which was the culprit (I originally wasn't listening to two channel much at the time I upgraded to the second pair...). I eventually tried everything, including different equipment (Denon to Rotel to Outlaw Audio to Musical Fidelity), nothing worked to cure the problem. They're just bright speakers, more intended for home theater in my opinion (which isn't esteemed...). I use Shunyata conditioning (Hydra) and good cabling as well and I agree with blindjim that cables/power conditioning help, but from my experience I eventually traded the speakers in on the Quads.

You could smooth the sound with the addition of new power cords. Gold ends (check VHAudio.com) by Oyieda will do it. The ends make the biggest difference...you can use the best Home Depot wire for the rest.

Lefty,

I own the Monitor 270s, a smaller tower featuring smaller drivers than yours - so take this comment with that caveat in mind. In my set-up, a subwoofer filled in the missing bottom octave and a half and nicely balanced the previously crisp sound. Take a look at the "measurements" section in the Stereophile on-line review of your speaker. At a glance, (and depending on your room) it looks like a sub might work for you, too. If you can borrow a sub for in-home demo, you may want to try this.

NB - If this approach works for you, the Velodyne SPLR subwoofers are being closed out at app 50% off list at Audio Advisor and IMHO represent great value.

Good Luck,

Marty