802/803D3 owners - what amplification/upstreams?

[rghanbari]

Originally Posted by violinfather

I just brought home a pair of 803D3's last night. Now to upgrade the amp. I have an old Krell 250/a3 running my front end. Any suggestions on what to use to replace it?

My 802d3's really benefit from having a beefy amp to drive the dynamics. When I was auditioning the 802s vs 803s, I thought the 803s would actually benefit more (they seemed more demanding of the upstream electronics to get the same dynamics I was hearing from the 802d3's).

I'm currently running a Classe 2300 (300W per channel) and haven't had a situation where either the amp or the speakers were breathing hard. I went from a Brystion 9Bsst (150W into 5 channels) to the Classe, and while the Bryston was no slouch, I thought the 802d3s really benefited from the extra headroom of the Classe's.

I'm currently auditioning the Benchmark AHB2 and doing a lot of A/B eval between stereo mode (100W/channel) and bridged mode (300W+ into a single channel). Too early to draw any conclusions, but it reenforces for me how revealing the 80xd3's really are, and how effortless they are with the right electronics upstream.

[violinfather]

Absolutely spectacular!

[Exsg]

Originally Posted by violinfather

Absolutely spectacular!

Congrats on the purchase!

Did you audition other speakers before the purchase?

[violinfather]

I did. I auditioned Focal Sopra 2 and 3's. B&W 802D3's. Also Revel Ultima 2's. My favourite for the price are the 803D3's. If I had more money to spend then I am not sure as I really liked the Sopra 3's.

[aardvarkbark]

Originally Posted by violinfather

I just brought home a pair of 803D3's last night. Now to upgrade the amp. I have an old Krell 250/a3 running my front end. Any suggestions on what to use to replace it?

PASS, Bryston, Classe. Min 175 wpc.

[dan87951]

I have 802 Diamonds and the McIntosh gear is a perfect combo for it. I have owned Classe, Emotiva, Bryston, etc. in the past but prefer the McIntosh gear over the others. McIntosh and B&W is a match made in heaven to my ears. Plus the build quality of Mac gear is like no other!

[Exsg]

Originally Posted by violinfather

I did. I auditioned Focal Sopra 2 and 3's. B&W 802D3's. Also Revel Ultima 2's. My favourite for the price are the 803D3's. If I had more money to spend then I am not sure as I really liked the Sopra 3's.

Yes. I nearly bought the 803s. They are great value.

Focals and Triangles never rocked my boat.

Have never heard wilsons which is strange.

Must reiterate - prima luna and BWs 800 series is really really good.

[violinfather]

Okay I am going to ask a very stupid question but how am I supposed to hook up biwire speaker cables with four banana ends to my Krell amp that has only one red and black terminal to each channel? I presume that I cannot and that I have to change out the ends to spades where they will connect to the amp. I know stupid question.

[Exsg]

Originally Posted by violinfather

Okay I am going to ask a very stupid question but how am I supposed to hook up biwire speaker cables with four banana ends to my Krell amp that has only one red and black terminal to each channel? I presume that I cannot and that I have to change out the ends to spades where they will connect to the amp. I know stupid question.

Biwire four banana ends go into the treble and bass plugs at the speaker. The other biwire end should have another two banana or spade ends to go into the amp plugs.

[audio bill]

Originally Posted by violinfather

Okay I am going to ask a very stupid question but how am I supposed to hook up biwire speaker cables with four banana ends to my Krell amp that has only one red and black terminal to each channel? I presume that I cannot and that I have to change out the ends to spades where they will connect to the amp. I know stupid question.

If your bi-wire cables are terminated with four bananas at the amp end, then you can try to insert one banana into the hole in the binding post and then gently tightening it, with the second matching polarity banana into the end where you would normally connect a banana plug. Otherwise some banana plugs are open at their back end and if that's true then you can stack one banana into the back of the first after it's inserted to the post. Having the cables reterminated with the more common bi-wire connection scheme would be to have the amp end's common polarities combined so that you only have one pair of connectors to deal with.