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Amp or Integrated for Dali MS4

I recently picked up a used pair of Dali MS4s. Prior to buying them, I had heard them in a couple of different dealer systems with tube amps where they sounded phenomenal--female vocals to die for and solid bass, among other things. Unfortunately, the amps (EAR 890 x 2 at one shop and an unknown but $20k amp at the other) are waaay out of my price range.

Now that I have them home, in my more modest system, they are really showing up the rest of my gear, i.e., not much synergy. I have a new apartment, so I've recently ordered some acoustic treatments to address the "room" part of the equation.

For those of you who have experience with the Dalis, what amp or integrated do you like the best? I'm looking to spend less than $5k on the used market.

The rest of my decidedly mid-fi system:
PS3 source
Onkyo TX-SR705 HT receiver
Musetex MTR-101 monoblock amps, updated in 1996

I generally don't listen at high volumes, but the 100WPC MTR-101s just seem to run out of steam.
mfranz
mfranz OP
4 posts
 
Did you guys try other amps before settling on those choices? What preamp are you using with the McCormack?
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
I have heard the Helicon 400s with a Plinius SA-201 and c-j 17LS2 preamp, and with a Pass INT30A. Both systems sounded very good.

Dalis are a musical speaker and should sound good with any quality amp that suits your tastes. What kind of sound are you looking for?
mfranz OP
4 posts
 
The thing that really wowed me when I was out auditioning was the midrange presence and texture, paired with smooth highs and bass slam. My main demo cut is Cassandra Wilson covering U2's "Love is Blindness". With the Dalis, I felt like I was listening to her singing in the room versus other speakers where it just sounded like I was listening to a pair of nice speakers. With the EAR amps, I could hear the saliva in her mouth--a little creepy, but impressive nonetheless. The bass on the Wilson track is very loose, but I heard other drum tracks where there was great transient response and weight.

So I guess you could say I'm looking for the bass control of a typical solid state amp paired with the midrange of a good tube amp. I'm pretty sensitive to high frequency grain as well, and that was also a big factor in my speaker choice.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,589 posts
 
You might want to try a tube preamp with a solid state amp. The combinations are endless. I don't know if you will get the same sound quality that you heard with the big $ amps but you can get very good sound with amplification in the Dali's price range.

Also, if you can't stand digital harshness you should check out cd palyers with minimum phase or apodizing filters. EMM Labs, Meridian, Ayre, PS Audio and Esoteric have these filters in some of their players.
mfranz OP
4 posts
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not familiar with the terms you used for the CD players, so I will do a little research on that. Another option I'm seriously considering is getting the Modwright tube upgrade for the Oppo BDP-83SE and running that into a preamp or integrated.

In the meantime, I decided to take a step backwards in digital resolution so I could reintroduce the Meitner Museatex PA-6i into the system, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the results.

I have the PS3 (PCM 44.1kHz & 48kHz) optical running into an Entech Number Cruncher 205.2 and on to the PA-6i. I didn't really sit down and listen critically, but this combination has more "body" and better soundstaging than the upsampled HDMI going through the Onkyo. I had some music playing in the background while I was working on the laptop, and I kept getting distracted by what I was hearing--that's a good thing. It isn't the last word on anything, but it may delay a new amp purchase for a bit.

So the Pass INT30A didn't have a problem driving the speakers? I thought I would have to go with one of the bigger Pass amps (X250/250.5 or XA100) to get enough punch and bass control on the Dalis.
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