Need advice for B&W 804 diamond amplification


Hello all,

I purchased a pair of B&W 804 diamond towers about a year ago. At the time I purchased them, I also got a rotel rsp-1570 processor and a rmb-1575 5-channel amp. The rotel amp delivers 250 wpc all channels driven @8 ohm. Rotel calls this amp a true high current amp but doesn't list the current capacity in the specs. This amp is also a class D. I have lived with this amp for over a year now and have never really been satisfied with it. I have read alot of bad press about class D equipment in general. I hope to find some owners of the 804D here to gain some knowledge from. My main goal is to improve my 2-channel listening experience. I have set aside roughly 15k to upgrade with. I have done a bit of searching and I like the parasound JC1 mono amps and the JC2 pre-amp with the bypass option. This equipment is appealing to me because I have the B&W towers as part of a 5.1 setup. The JC2 would allow me to bypass the rotel processor and go to the amps during 2-channel listening. I could then switch it back for TV/Theater use. From the reviews I have read on the JC1 amps they seem to be good quality equipment that is in my price range. They are a class A/B amp but, they operate in pure class A up to 25 watts. I like to listen to my music fairly loud. Not enough to disturb the neighbors but still pretty loud. I'm just not sure how loud this would allow me to play without exceeding the 25watt class A operation. If I understand correctly, at the point it surpasses the 25w it then operates in class A/B. I'm not quite sure how that works. The B&W 804D does have a dual set of mounting post for bi-amping. I Guess to take advantage of this I would need either two seperate amps or a dual mono. would it be worthwile to purchase a stereo 2-channel amp and use it to bi-amp with or, should I just find the best mono amp that pairs up with these specific towers and use the included jumper cables. Another option would be to use a monoblock with a single output and run a cable that splits to four connectors and bi-wire them. Is there really any benefit to this over using the jumper cables that came with the speakers? I'm sorry for the long winded post. I am about to spend alot of money, atleast for me. I just want to make sure I am getting the most out of it. To make a long story short, If you owned the rotel Processor/Amp combo and the B&W 804 towers, what upgrades would you make to the system with a 15k budget? Please limit yourself to pre-amp,processor,amps,powerline conditioners and interconnects. I am not looking to upgrade source components at this time. All of my source equipment is pretty good. Thats another story for another time when I have more money. Thank you in advance for your suggestions and advice.

Andy Price
andyprice44
How much do you want to spend max.? The best use of speakers that good is strictly 2 channel for music.
Movie sound tracks do very well with fairly inexpensive speaker sets with a good sub for LFE which means low frequency effects.
I would seriously consider separating the two systems.
I don't have 804D, but 804S. When I upgraded the speakers I had a Rotel RB1080 amp, which worked great with lesser B&W, but wasn't on par with the 804S. I auditioned some amps, narrrowed down to Classe and McIntosh, preferred Mc, and ended up with MC275 (tubes) over MC252 (SS). I really like tubes with my speakers (later got a tube pre).

At the time I was auditioning for amps I did listen to a pair of 802D driven by huge VTL (tube) amps and the sound was outstanding too.

With 15k you could even buy 2 MC275 and try them as monoblocks or to biamp (I myself would love to listen to that!). Or if you preder SS 2 MC252. Classe is also great. Rowlands are said to work great with B&W too, but I haven't heard them. Have you checked the audiokarma forum?
B&W - it's ALWAYS Rotel, McIntosh, and Classe. Why is that. Hmmmm...every dealer I've ever been to that sells B&W sells either Rotel and McIntosh or Rotel and Classe. Has anyone ever tried with another amp?
I've heard them with Pass Labs and Bryston. Both were pretty good. Pass was the better of the 2.

As far as why Rotel and Classe, I believe B&W owns Classe and I think Rotel too.

Not sure on McIntosh, that could be one of those coincidences.
Thanks for all the responses guys. There is a Hi-Fi shop that is in a bigger city about an hour away. They deal Mcintosh gear. I am going to see if they have any demo models they can loan me for a home audition.
I Think I am going to stay with SS amps. I like the idea of using 2 of the MC252 for Bi-amping. The specs on the MC252 also state it can be bridged mono. I sure would like to try this model out in my system. Now I just need to get out there and listen to some amps.

Andy