Amp for Revel Ultima Salon 2

[MainAnalog]

Jumped in and bought the mc275. It's installed. Have asked the dealer to bring in a new c22 preamp next

[mtroo]

Originally Posted by MainAnalog

Jumped in and bought the mc275. It's installed. Have asked the dealer to bring in a new c22 preamp next

Congratulations

[MainAnalog]

Wow, MC2301's. I'll put that on my 5 year upgrade list. I bought the 275 and installed it a few days ago. Haven't started seriously listening yet. Starting to deploy straight analog and tube gear to the South, digital to the North. Balanced cable runs to intermingle systems :-) Thanks everyone for input!

[Pampero]

Congratulations, sounds fun! I'm very interested in your ongoing observations.

[MainAnalog]

Tonight worked on characterizing "my" late night modest sound level. 10 feet back from Salon2's looks like I range between 55 up to about 70 dB via several free Android meters. I'm assuming A weighted as there is no information on what they are measuring. Tried 4 free apps and they were all within +/- 1 dB so at least they are consistent. I drop about 3-4 dB from about a meter from the speaker to my head. Now I know I play music much louder on occasion but the modest levels probably cover 95% of my listening habit. The McIntosh 275 has really been wonderful for me at these modest volumes. I've yet to hook my ML383 back up even though I bought another set of Blue Jean cables for it to make swapping amps simple. I'm a tube guy! Who knew!? :-)

[DCMC]

Hi. I am planning to buy Revel Ultima Salon 2 and I have old Conrad Johnson Classic Tube Preamp and CJ MF 2200 power amp. Also looking at MBL C11 and C21 pre and stereo amp as replacement. Any views appreciated

[Pampero]

Originally Posted by DCMC

Hi. I am planning to buy Revel Ultima Salon 2 and I have old Conrad Johnson Classic Tube Preamp and CJ MF 2200 power amp. Also looking at MBL C11 and C21 pre and stereo amp as replacement. Any views appreciated

It's a bit awkward to say this in a thread where the emphasis is on enjoyable low level listening, but many of us with Salon2s would probably recommend the highest quality, most powerful amplification you can support.

No doubt your CJ will drive the Salon2s, but these speakers respond well to plenty of clean power. Try your amplifier and see. If you like to listen to large scale music at concert hall levels bear in mind that the Salons have a tested sensitivity of 86dB. They need plenty of power if you like to play them at commanding levels.

I thought an MC452 would be more than enough. These days I'd say it's enough but not too much (for me) by any means. It's not all that uncommon for me to see the output meters brushing 450 plus watts on demanding program peaks when I'm feeling frisky. I'm not guilty of playing them at excessive levels most of the time and they will satisfy with ten percent or less of that power being used most of the time. But if you put the stick to them, they will handle whatever (within reason) you can throw at them.

[MainAnalog]

I would agree with Pampero: " If you like to listen to large scale music at concert hall levels bear in mind that the Salons have a tested sensitivity of 86dB. They need plenty of power if you like to play them at commanding levels. "

The MC452 I tried was effortless and drove them wonderfully at those levels. Were I looking for concert level I would never have brought the AMP back. Dark Side of the Moon I think hurt me with the clocks :-)

[Audiophilehi]

Would the Ultima Studio2 require the same power as the Salon2? The Ultima Studio2 is on my short list of speakers for my next upgrade.

Thanks

[stollen]

Originally Posted by Audiophilehi

Would the Ultima Studio2 require the same power as the Salon2? The Ultima Studio2 is on my short list of speakers for my next upgrade.

Thanks

The sensitivity rating on the Studio2's is 88.7 vs 86.4 for the Salon2's, so according to the specs they can do more with a little less power compared to the Salon2's. My local store had both in stock and running on the same electronics the Studio2's did seem to do better with lower powered amps.

Also, I am running a pair of Studio2's with 150 watts each from my Krell integrated amp and it seems to do just fine for my listening, which can get pretty loud at times and I don't think it would do as good of a job on the Salon2's.