Amplifier for B&W

[Musicmansweden]

Originally Posted by Michael56

I am relatively new to the hifi world. Have some B&W 802 Nautilus - got them almost by accident, but was taken in by the reviews of them, their stunning looks etc. Also, a B&W 800 HTM2 centre speaker, and a pair of B&W CDM 1NT rear speakers. So then - for music - I had a pair of B&Ws being driven by an old but still good Linn set up, (AV5125 power amp and AV5103 system controller) but I just didnt want to listen for long. The sound was thin, bright, strained. I thought I had some reasonable gear, but wasnt enjoying it. Tried all sorts of amps; Anthem, tube amps (Prima Luna and EKCO) to try and get some warmth, nothing worked. I was fighting a rearguard action with the missus against replacing the B&W set up with something else. The last resort was a pair of Rotel 1581 500W mono blocks. Now no more arguments with the missus. The B&Ws are staying!

This is so interesting; I am running my 803 D3 with 2 Linn 2250 amps and with some albums really misses out something in the overall experience and I am pretty sure it is not about the 803:s performance

Could you describe what happened to your experience with the monoblocks vs the 5125?

Best regards

Johannes