best mid-fi amp company to match with B&Ws?? (1 Viewer)

[rodneyH]

Please give me some advice, NAD, rotel, marantz, b&k, parasound, adcom, etc, etc....If you have experience with certain amps that would be great.. (btw, I don't want to buy a mailorder/internet amp)

 

[Phil A]

I have owned Adcoms, Rotels, NADs and still have one NAD amp driving a remote zone and a pair of B&W P6s laying around waiting for me to get to the basement. B&Ws tend to be very forgiving and are not a hard load to drive. Sometimes with the bigger amps of the bunch you get more power a little better bass but perhaps a little more coldness as well. Of the bunch from the above list (have not owned the others on your list) I would look at Rotel. They seemed to be built more consistent and have a 5-year warranty.

 

[Philip Hamm]

My B&Ws are pretty low grade/low price 602s. However, I'm very happy with the sound mated with my Onkyo 919.
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Philip Hamm
AIM: PhilBiker

 

[PomingF]

I sure can understand your concern about buying online or mail order but keep in mind one of the better match for B&W's is Bryston and you can easily find good deals on Audiogon compare to what you pay retail on amps you listed. Bryston carries 20 yr transferrable warranty on their amps and with whatever leftover warranty you have from previous owners you still will be better off with the 5 years most warranty from other brands.
PF

 

[rin]

What are you looking for? 2-channel, 5.1, both? Also, what B&W speakers do you have or are you still looking? I have had my 602's through four receivers, a Rotel 5 channel amp(and numerous cable upgrades), to the Parasound amp/pre-amp combo I have now, and these speakers just keep sounding better. I am waiting for my 604's which are being shipped right now and will take over as my new mains as soon as they get here(next Thursday). I never got to listen to the 602's with a full Rotel separate system but they sounded great with the RB-985 I had. I would suggest giving Rotel and especially Parasound a listen. You couldn't go wrong with either IMO.
rin
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My Home Theater

 

[rodneyH]

I have the CDM7NT, and am looking for a new amp. I already have a rotel 976 which is a 6/5/4/3 channel amp. I am using it is 3X150w mode (for my center and rears), and am using an NAD 214 (2X80) for the mains, I think I want a little more power, but am trying to decide if I need it, Perhaps I will try my rotel and Use it to power the mains and center, and use the NAD for rears (this is what I origionally planned on doing, But heard from 2-3 seperate people/dealers that knew what I had and I wasn't going to buy anything else of thiers, except thier speakers, So I think that they would be unbiased, That they suggested to use the NAD for the mains, and that even know it has less power, it really isn't that much of a difference (???) and it would have less "cross-talk" and other problems that multi channel (>2 channels) amps have (which I am not to sure of), keep in mind, these were audiophiles guys, all at different dealers, that were giving me advice will I was demoing CDMs.

 

[Dave Morton]

my B&W's are powered by Rotel's RB-991 and RB-993, 2-channel and 3-channel 200 wpc. They sound crisp and clear, very detailed. These are great solid amps. Although they do not make these particular amps, they now have the RB-1095 which is a 5-channel amp. They basically put the 991 and 993 together in one unit.
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------ Dave ------
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[JaleelK]

Please give me some advice, NAD, rotel, marantz, b&k, parasound, adcom, etc, etc....If you have experience with certain amps that would be great.. (btw, I don't want to buy a mailorder/internet amp)
Don't you mean mid-end and not mid-fi? If you are looking for a certain amp for power output, some can produce louder sounds with less distortion, but most amps, low-end, mid-end and high-end,when played within their specifications, sound alike. The amps you cited above, are all good amps and probably all sound alike, you coouldn't tell the difference between them and even high-end amps, if you were asked to do so in a double blind level matched test. I think, most of those amps can drive easily drive B&W speakers, most receivers can drive B&W's.

 

[Shane Martin]

Do we have to get into this double blind test crap again? People hear a difference, some don't. Let's leave it at that since it has been beaten to death 2 million times.
FWIW My local dealer uses Krell and Rotel to drive the B&W's that he sells at various price ranges. I've heard a Bryston/B&W setup and it is a bit bright for my tastes as compared to the B&W/Rotel combo.

 

[Yohan Pamudji]

B&W + NAD seems to be a popular combo. The shop where I bought my setup sells (mainly) 2 speaker brands and 2 electronics brands. The speakers are Paradigm and B&W. The electronics are Marantz and NAD. They match Paradigms with Marantz and B&W with NAD. The B&W + NAD was out of my range at the time so I didn't do extensive listening, but what little I heard sounded great.
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[JaleelK]

Do we have to get into this double blind test crap again? People hear a difference, some don't. Let's leave it at that since it has been beaten to death 2 million times.
FWIW My local dealer uses Krell and Rotel to drive the B&W's that he sells at various price ranges. I've heard a Bryston/B&W setup and it is a bit bright for my tastes as compared to the B&W/Rotel combo.
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We should always help those seeking advice on purchasing decisions, to make the right decision, as best we can. Why would you recommend to someone who's asking for your opinion on an amp, to spend more than he needs to . If he can get the same performance by spending $1,000 as he would spending $3,000, regardless of name brand, why wouldn't you advise that person of that. The reason that I cite double blind test, because that is the criteria I use when giving my opinion on amps and on the purchasing of them.

 

[JohanK]

If he can get the same performance by spending $1,000 as he would spending $3,000, regardless of name brand, why wouldn't you advise that person of that.

Then, why not advise the person to buy a $400 Yamaha (or whatever) receiver? It can drive the B/Ws right? Sounds the same as a Rotel (or Krell for that matter) in a double blind right?
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/bbs/equipment/28687.html
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[Pete Calderwood]

My vote goes to Parasound.
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Dai miei incubi e nei miei sogni -
Un' Esistenza Rovinata...

 

[rodneyH]

For those that think a $499 receiver sounds just as good as a nice separate system, I will say that I already have a ghetto blaster to listen to my music too, I just won the lottery and want to blow a bunch of $$ on a cool system to impress the nieghbors. I will let you believe that, since you want me to believe you. Now lets not make My origional Q into a stupid Reciever VS seperates debate (isn't this a audio/video site??)

 

[JaleelK]

For those that think a $499 receiver sounds just as good as a nice separate system, I will say that I already have a ghetto blaster to listen to my music too, I just won the lottery and want to blow a bunch of $$ on a cool system to impress the nieghbors. I will let you believe that, since you want me to believe you. Now lets not make My origional Q into a stupid Reciever VS seperates debate (isn't this a audio/video site??)>>
But I was of the impression that you wanted to make good decision of the type of amp you are going to purchase. You used the word "Mid-fi" to describe the amps you cited for people to give their opinions on. The use of the word "mid-fi" is an indication that you believe those amps are not hi-fi,but you gave no explanation as to how you determined to be such. Was it purely on name brand or cost? If you asking for opinions on amps, what is it that you are trying to find out about the amps, which one sounds better? If so, if someone is to give you an honest opinion about amp, how can they truly know which sounds better without a careful listening comparison.

 

[JaleelK]

Then, why not advise the person to buy a $400 Yamaha (or whatever) receiver? It can drive the B/Ws right? Sounds the same as a Rotel (or Krell for that matter) in a double blind right?
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If I told you that a double blind level matched listening test was conducted between a $500. Yamaha amp vs. $12,000 worth of monoblock amps, with 10 listening trials and the listener was only able to distinguish the monoblocks 3 out of 10 trials, what would say then ? Well, this infact did happen. If you say that you can tell the difference between a Krell amp and a cheap Yamaha receiver, you should be able to prove it in a double blind listening test. Double listening test should be welcomed by high-end audio companies and dealers, because it would prove to the customers that high prices are justified. But you know what, high-end audio companies and dealers are just "scared to death" of objective listening comparisons.

 

[Steve_D]

Jaleel-
I'd ask for the testing methodology.
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[Chu Gai]

what would be your criteria in determining if differences were audible?
[Edited last by Chu Gai on July 17, 2001 at 10:17 AM]

 

[rodneyH]

To some people a pontiac fiero looks like a ferarri, so I would say that "most" people wouldn't beable to tell the diff of the reciev vs AMP, but "most people" don't usually hang out on this site (but I actually still have a $799 yamaha reciever and I can tell you I can hear a diff with my NAD amp, placebo??? beleive what you want and move to "never never land".) I thought this was a HT/audio site, not somewhere were people claim that a $12,000 Krell sounds the same as a $499 yamaha b/c some 12 year old girl couldn't tell the difference while listening to her Britney MP3 (i know, I know, know you are going to tell me that mp3 sounds as good as SACD/DSD)

 

[KeithR]

checkwww.odysseyaudio.com Klaus is a true pleasure to deal with. check the reviews on audioreview.com and you will see why this amp is a bargain! i may order a 3 channel when the Outlaw preamp comes out...the real deal for sure
keith