Suggested amplifier (DAC-USB) with B&W685

nvpatkar

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Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I have purchased a pair of B&W 685 recently. I have an old Denon AVR-1603. I want to buy a new stereo amplifier. I mainly listen to rock music. The room is 10x8 meters. The speakers are mounted on Tonos stands.
I also have a playgo (PlayGo | love your music, free your sound. Home of high fidelity wireless audio.) which i plan to use as a wireless DAC

I have a few amps in mind
Marantz 6005 (five star rating but only 45W)
Cambridge Audio Azur 651A
NAD 356 DAC (bit more expensive but higher output)

Would have liked to buy Rotel but $$$$
Also Yamaha RN501 but not available in India (has a subwoofer output)

Please let me know your thoughts
 
B&W 685 ? they are bookshelves right ? You may have a good synergy between those and a Yamaha M80/85 amp.
However M70/65 and maybe the 60 had some design issues. You may want to try either the 80/85 or go to the 45-50.
Also carver TFM35 was good on a lot of B&W's as well.
These speakers like high current, high power, but they didn't like the PA7 unlike those 801's that really sounded best on the 801. Just my .02. I never heard 685's, only heard 801's and 805 bookshelves.
Cool.
Srinath.
 
Hi srinath, thanks for the reply, yes they are bookshelves. they are brand new (got them cheap in NYC, as the next model (685 S2s) had arrived.
Dunno if carver is available in India. I did hear that they require a high current amp.

I wonder if anyone has tried them with Cambridge audio Azur 651A.
How does one know if the amp is "high current"
 
The B&W's are the way they are - particular and high current hungry because they have a 6th order crossover. In some cases if you bi-amp them they completely bupass the XO. My only experience with that is from my friends 801, those are 3 driver but only bi-ampable. You could look up a schematic. If the biamp bypasses the XO completely, you can then run them off 2 much much smaller amps. But be very very careful where you set the XO frequency. You need to set it to atleast a few 100 more than the original tweeter freq. Any lower and you can burn up the tweeter. Woofers can take high freq usually, they are likely to not die, but they can sound awful playing it, and some of them have ugly peaks long after they are useable, like a woofer that can be used to 2k will actually drop in output form 2k to say 2800, and suddenly peak @ 3000 and hence sound awful if let to play that high. Anyway active XO's are 4th order usually, so you may be better off anyway. Even though you are buying 3 pieces of equipment, the active XO, the 2 amps, you can get by with a lot less power in the 2 amps.
Like around here, I can get 2-3 like adcoms 535's and 555's and carver m1.0's etc etc for the price of 1 nakamichi PA7. Something like that.
High current = something with a peak of over about 12 amp - though it depends on the wattage too. The Nak PA7 is the highest I have seen with 18 amp and 200 watts to 8 ohm. That means it can power something @ 2 ohm or lower comfortably.
If you're by amping then you dont need to worry about that aspect. The main thing then is how it sounds. I suspect a 10-20 w for tweeter and a 70-80 for the woofer will work.
Try both ways. It may just be the same with a single amp. You never know.

Cool.
Srinath.
 
Rotel RA 12

9053-Rotel_RA-12.jpg



Super matching IMHO fast,very good low bass,detailed...same concern company

You can use Bluetooth also...
 
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thanks Maxprocrj, i agree about the RA12, wonder whats the street price in Mumbai? I asked a dealer he said (86K INR). I did not bargain?
 
I have heard B&W 602 S2 with NAD C372 and the combination was very good. The neutral to bright sound of 602 was well matched with NAD's warm sound. 685 is very similar to 602 in size, but I cannot comment if it retains the same sound signature. I don't imagine a big difference. NAD C372 was probably an overkill for 602. I think a lower model, like C356 (or even C326), should also have enough juice to drive B&W 685.

Having owned CA 650, I would caution pairing it with B&W. Marantz on the other hand might work well. But, since you are already considering NAD C356, that in my opinion would be the better option.
 
thanks aashish351 for the advise, will steer clear of the CA651. i think its between the NAD 356DAC and the RA12. I am favoring the later but...it will really stretch my budget
 
685 S2 is nutral to warm sounding speaker....not at all bright....


So NAD boomy sound musnt matchs well with it...

Budget....yea....


Wait if needed...but you would not repent or shall look out for upgrade for sure in near future its worth.....
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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