As long as we're talking Adcom and Rotel, why not discuss Parasound and NAD? Some Adcoms are designed (or consulted with) Nelson Pass. It's my understanding, however, that John Curl is very involved with many (most?) of the Parasound designs. The Halo series gets good press everywhere and the P3 and A23 preamp and amp from the Halo line are pretty affordable. I haven't have much experience with the latest NADs, but some refer to them as the "poor man's McIntosh" and they have certainly been racking up some great reviews in the audiophile press. Also +1 on finding used Bryston or Classe that you can afford. I have an Adcom 5-channel amp in my HT from their now-defunct FAT series. It's a wide bandwidth MOSFET amp and I like the way it sounds and behaves a lot. With really good speaker cables it sounds like a much more expensive rig. Adcom still makes a high current 200 wpc 2-channel wide bandwidth (3-130 KHz) MOSFET amp in the GFA-5500. These can be had new for less than a grand. Another approach may be to get the Adcom GFA-7605, a 5x125 wpc amp. Bi-amp your speakers and let the amp's center channel go idle. It'll give you 250 total watts per speaker. Regardless of amp choice you should probably factor in bi-wiring for this level of B&W; most reviews recommend it and it's my understanding that their complex crossovers with multiple crossover slopes do better with bi-wiring. |
So maybe you'll save up for a dream amp later when you can afford one. You can take the time to audition products from Ayre, McIntosh, Bryston, Classe, etc. and find the amp that really makes the 802's sing. In the meantime you still need a decent amp that will drive the 802's properly and keep you within budget. If the review buzz for the Odyssey Audio Khartago is even half true, this may be the interim amp for you. Here are some reviews: TAS, Soundstage, Enjoythemusic, Goodsound. |
