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B&W 685 (1 Viewer)

Relic1Golf

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its been awhile, I finally bought a pair of B&W 685 bookshelf speakes for front L/R. I have a Denon AVR3805 receiver with no pre-out I can find, its rated at 120wpc but I wanted to get a integrated amp or 2ch power amp for the 685s. how would I connect the amp to the receiver and would anyone recommend a sufficent amp rated at 40-60w for those speakers?
 

Relic1Golf

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with an A or A/B power amp you would have good clean power. much like a SET amp rated at a only a few watts, its only 20w but it cleans up the signal path and with a speaker rated at 90-95db for efficiency you are getting 95db@1watt. you dont need 5000w to sound good. granted the B&W speakers are rated at 88db so they are not all that efficient, but any speaker could benefit from a dedicated amp.
 

John Garcia

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The 3805 most definitely has preamp outputs right next to the power connector and labeled PRE OUT. Have you already tried these speakers with this receiver?

x033AV3805B-b.jpeg


As to an amp or integrated, kind of need a price range to give suggestions, since recommendations could be very different for differen price ranges.
 

Relic1Golf

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Oh shit, I didn't even see those. I have my subwoofer connected and I looked right past them. As far as price, probably 600-$1000. I was looking at an integrated amp but I figured I wouldn't need one if I could use the master controls off the receiver.
 

Relic1Golf

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would I be able to get away with a power amp or do I need the secondary controls from a pre-amp or integrated amp?
 

gene c

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If you're using the Pre-Outs on the receiver then you only need a power amp. The receiver would act just like a Pre-Amp.

Some of us feel a dedicated stereo analog pre-amp is better then a receiver for stereo music. Some don't.
 

Relic1Golf

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thank you all for the replies. I will keep looking for either an A/B solid state or tube amp, I will keep you all posted on what I find.
 

Relic1Golf

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schan1269 said:
If you want a lean bite sound, find a NAD PE(Power Envelope).If you don't like it, resell it.
I think Planz sells NAD products, I will check with them to see if its available.
 

Relic1Golf

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I was reading a review about the NAD 245BEEE that is a 4ch bridgeable amp. the B&W 685 speakers have 4 binding posts for bi-wire setup, would I have any benefit connecting a 4ch amp in bi-wire setup or just get a 2ch amp and connect it normally?
 

John Garcia

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Connect it normally. Rather than Biamp, you're better off just getting a big enough amp for your tastes.
 

Relic1Golf

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I know but I didn't know if it would work for bi-wiring. It's a 4ch amp you could also bridge into 2.
 

John Garcia

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I've biamped bookshelf speakers before and can't say they benefitted from it. It might be more of a benefit with a very power hungry speaker like a 4 Ohm tower that is demanding, but I doubt the 685s at 87dB sensitivity and -3dB of approximately 52hz, I don't think they'll require it. Since they're listed as 8 Ohm, you might be OK running that amp bridged with them because the amp would most likley be limited to 8 Ohms when bridged.
 

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