What make Amp has good synergy with B&W 804 speakers

[Roby79]

The last time I was buying speakers, I had the 705S2 on my list - without doubt the best sounding top end of all the speakers I listened to. In the end, the KEF were the better all-round performer, and I have always been 100% happy with my decision.

During the buying process, I heard the B&Ws on the end of Primare and Marantz amplification. I would recommend either without hesitation.

Looks like these days Scandinavian hifi is hot
Have to admit if I had to reconstruct a system those would be on my list
An not only supra cables

 

[DomT]

Which B&W speaker, what budget, and how big is the room? Otherwise you will just get a lot of random answers

 

[ROOG]

The room is potentially the biggest issue, if you pick a speaker that is able to provide deep bass that can excite your natural room bass resonances you may not like the uncorrected sound. You can experiment using REW which should allow you to foresee any issues, a thread all of its own. You can then apply EQ or tone controls to minimize these effects.

To some extent you can do the above, (as I and many others have tried) by demoing gear at home, but I found it tiresome going back an forth to the dealers for different gear and it is a 'hit and miss' process.

Choose and amplifier that is capable of powering your chosen speaker without significant issues. Any modern solid state amplifier 'worth its salt' should give a flat response and should not significantly affect the tonal balance, if at all.

 

[willie shaw]

Thank you everyone , definitely a trend emerging. Should have said it 804 model. Have amended title now

 

[xyz4]

Thank you everyone , definitely a trend emerging. Should have said it 804 model. Have amended title now

Which series? D4 is much more benign electrically and especially EPDR from crossover perspective. The others however (!) not so much.

 

[britishcomposers]

Trio/Kenwood L-05M mono power amplifiers. I have run these through that very loudspeaker model. Four of them bi-amping, but one pair will do. Nothing like them for clean, fast, musical sounds with real control and zero fatigue. 45-years old, superbly built from a servicing point of view and very cool running. I would pit them against any modern Class AB design of today and they'll sound better. Sanken transistors with the widest FR. Sitting on a quartet of them that are on eBay via a friend who is listing them privately.

 

[newlash09]

The best B&W sound I heard was with a tube preamp and parasound halo A21 power amp. There were two tubed preamps and both were really good. One an ayon that I cant remember the name. The second was a DHT preamp from KR audio. The KR audio P135 preamp was exceptional at sound staging. We tried a Karan poweramp on the same chain. But the karan's higher damping factor robbed off the sonic magic. So for my personal music taste, i would'nt prefer power amps with high damping factor like hegel or karan. By the same measure, Naim should also work well. But the parasound with its mellow but detailed presentation was really great.

My friend subsequently changed for a Mcintosh integrated. It's a big and bold sound without harshness. Though a bit too rounded at the edges for my tastes. But i felt it had the drive for modern music like edm, punk etc. While the parasound suited more for vocals and slightly laid back music. The dynamics on parasound and Mcintosh were similar, but the karan was a clear step ahead in this regards.