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Monoblocks or stereo poweramps for B&W 802 Diamond

S

sandeepmenon

Member
Hello All,

I am looking for some advice recommendations for poweramps for my new B&W 802 diamonds. I currently have a Marantz PM KI Peral lite with 70W output to 8ohms. I would ideally like to upgrade to something slightly more powerful even though the 802's are sensitive speakers(90dB).
I use MDAC as my pre/DAC.
My budget is around GBP 2k max and I was looking at the following choices:
- Audiolab 8200MB
- Quad Elite QSP
- TeddyAmp MB100
- Emotiva XPA1(though importing them form US would be a hassle)
- XTZ

Would be great to get some recommendations! Are there any other good value for money power amps that you would suggest for my setup.

Thanks,
Sandeep
 
Could be worth adding a pair of NAD C275BEEs to the list, i'm pretty sure they're ok to run bridged. IME with the older C272s they won't like low impedance but i think the 802s are
8 Ohm?
Your ideal would probably be a pair of Bryston 7BSST2s but they're way over budget.

You're definitely correct in identifying lack of power as the main impediment to decent SQ in the current setup (in my opinion)
 
The 802d's have a nasty impedance dip, and demand a very powerful amplifier. With a speaker of that quality I would be looking for a meridian 557 SH (£800) or a Bryston as suggested above, minimum 4BSST2. Without a punchy amplifier, you will not be hearing how great the 802's are.
 
If it was me, I'd definitely be on the look-out for a Bryston 4B-series power amp. I had a '98 4B-ST and it was a lot of fun!

Model number shows voltage, and date shows year and week of manufacture:

Model: 4B-ST-230
Serial No: 447334
Date: 98 16

OEM packaging and box is a must, as the delivery charge for an empty box costs more than the packaging itself due to carriage charges being calculated by volume.

20 year transferable warranty requires original sales receipt from February 2006 on, but no paperwork is required for components manufactured before then.

http://www.bryston.com/products/power_amps/4BSST-2.html

http://www.bryston.com/pages/technical.html
 
Bungle said:
The 802d's have a nasty impedance dip, and demand a very powerful amplifier. With a speaker of that quality I would be looking for a meridian 557 SH (£800) or a Bryston as suggested above, minimum 4BSST2. Without a punchy amplifier, you will not be hearing how great the 802's are.
Click to expand...

I had 802's they are difficult to drive, make sure the amp you choose, doubles its output as the impedance halves ,I ended up using a 500 watt ASR on mine,
Keith.
 
i agree they need a high quality and high power amp, the ones you list are not really up to the job ,,keep saving , or you will be looking to upgrade again next year,,,*musical fidelity 308 cr ,power amps are very good and you should get two for 2k, if you can find them,,802's should be bi-wired or better bi-amped
 
My speakers are a difficult load to drive nominal 6 Ohm but spends a lot of time around 2 Ohm in the treble. I am using a pair of Meridian 559s both in bridged mode. This amp is a dual mono block design but in one chassis and each amp has its own power supply and xformer. A single mono block can deliver >300w into 8 Ohm and >500w into 4 Ohm and deliver a peak of 150A into 1 Ohm so can drive anything really. A bridged pair will deliver >1600w into 4 Ohm.

For what you get a s/h 559 is very good value for money as you'll pay around £1200-1500 for one and thats around half the price of the competition. However they are not all that common and you may need to hunt around. Also they weigh in at 42Kg apiece.

Cheers,

DV
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. Very useful!
Looks like Bryston 4BSST2 and s/h meridian's(557/559) are what I should investigate.
I am pretty sure its a lame question but on browsing found that the 557's were launched in mid 90s. So my question is around the advances in the last 15 years havent produced a better SS amp at these price points :)
 
A bit of a different choice could be a pair of bridged Crown XTis, i think the little 1002 has plenty of output and is sub £700 each. Some of the others are surprisingly good but i haven't heard the XTis yet.
 
dweezil said:
Yup proaudioeurope ; a pair of EAR 849s at £3999 listed.
Lovely!
Click to expand...

They are not 849s - they are the studio version 549s (the big brother to the 509s) They are 2 x 509 in each chassis which can produce 200 watts. HiFi Dave knows all about these beasts.
 
Hi,

Having owned a pair of Tannoy D700s (which have a similar impedance curve - also dipping to ~2-3ohms) for ~17 years and, for the last 7 years, driven by a pair of Jeff Rowland Model 201 monoblocs, you may want to consider a pair of similar ICEpower-based monobloc amps such as the SX-500s from Wyred4Sound.

Jeff Rowland amps tend to carry a price premium due to the milled aluminium casework, while Wyred4Sound eschew the bling in favour of lower pricing. W4S also try to reduce "middleman-markup" by using an e-channel strategy. Both the SX-500 and the Model 201 share the same ICEpower module which delivers 250watts into 8ohms, 500watts into 4 ohms and will drive a minimum load impedance of 2ohms.

Sonically - in my case, driven by a Classe' CP-500 pre-amp - the D700s have really benefitted from these telephone book-sized monoblocs - bass is more extended and much more controlled with a tautness that was missing when driven by last power amp (Classe CA-100). The mids and highs are clean and musical with no sign of any so-called "Class D brightness".

I play a lot of vinyl on an old LP12/Hercules/Ittok/Kontrapunkt 'h' via the in-built add-on phone stage of the CP-500 and I love it.

FYI, the SX-500 is priced on W4S' website at $899.00 per unit $1,798.00 per pair and the next line contains a URL link to their webpage:

Wyred4Sound SX-500 web-page

As you may have gathered, my opinion vis-a-vis your post's subject line leans more towards monoblocs than towards stereo amps due, mainly, to the benefits of improved channel isolation which helps deliver a clean and stable soundstage.

What I WOULD strongly recommend is a home trial of any amps you wind up considering - there is nothing better than an in situ audition where the amps can be heard in the combined context of YOUR system and YOUR listening environment as well as playing selections of YOUR favourite music. (After all, YOU will be paying for it....)

Happy hunting and I hope you find a setup that really pleases you over the years.

Dave
 
DevillEars said:
Hi,

Having owned a pair of Tannoy D700s (which have a similar impedance curve - also dipping to ~2-3ohms) for ~17 years and, for the last 7 years, driven by a pair of Jeff Rowland Model 201 monoblocs, you may want to consider a pair of similar ICEpower-based monobloc amps such as the SX-500s from Wyred4Sound.

Jeff Rowland amps tend to carry a price premium due to the milled aluminium casework, while Wyred4Sound eschew the bling in favour of lower pricing. W4S also try to reduce "middleman-markup" by using an e-channel strategy. Both the SX-500 and the Model 201 share the same ICEpower module which delivers 250watts into 8ohms, 500watts into 4 ohms and will drive a minimum load impedance of 2ohms.

Sonically - in my case, driven by a Classe' CP-500 pre-amp - the D700s have really benefitted from these telephone book-sized monoblocs - bass is more extended and much more controlled with a tautness that was missing when driven by last power amp (Classe CA-100). The mids and highs are clean and musical with no sign of any so-called "Class D brightness".

I play a lot of vinyl on an old LP12/Hercules/Ittok/Kontrapunkt 'h' via the in-built add-on phone stage of the CP-500 and I love it.

FYI, the SX-500 is priced on W4S' website at $899.00 per unit $1,798.00 per pair and the next line contains a URL link to their webpage:

Wyred4Sound SX-500 web-page

As you may have gathered, my opinion vis-a-vis your post's subject line leans more towards monoblocs than towards stereo amps due, mainly, to the benefits of improved channel isolation which helps deliver a clean and stable soundstage.

What I WOULD strongly recommend is a home trial of any amps you wind up considering - there is nothing better than an in situ audition where the amps can be heard in the combined context of YOUR system and YOUR listening environment as well as playing selections of YOUR favourite music. (After all, YOU will be paying for it....)

Happy hunting and I hope you find a setup that really pleases you over the years.

Dave
Click to expand...
Thank you Dave. Valuable advice. The Wyred4Sound SX-500 definitely looks interesting!
 
Darth Vader said:
The 559s are in a completely different league to the 557. The 559 was Meridians flagship amp and uses the same technology as their DSP8000 speaker that is still made today. Yours for a mere £35K http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/meridian_dsp8000.shtml

Cheers,

DV
Click to expand...
Hello DV,

The is a 558 on sale currently. It seems to be the 5 channel version. Would appreciate your views on this. I read that they can be configured to run in stereo mode as well. Is this true.
Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Sandeep.
 
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