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audiolab 6000A and Quad S2, good match?

AMPaul

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Feb 23, 2021
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Hi everyone. I have recently purchased a pair of Quad S2 speakers which i love and i currently play them through a NAD C320BEE. I do not have a lot of experience with different amps but i have heard and seen a lot of praise for the audiolab 6000A integrated amp and it is very well within my reach ( at £600 here in the UK). My question to you old hands in audio is whether they'd make a good match and if not what would make a better match.

The Quads are quite revealing and can be possibly described as a tad bright ( i wouldn't personally ), and from my several months experience with them and the NAD i find that at normal listening volume they don't bother my ears at all but when i crank up the volume ( say 12 o'clock on the NAD) they can be a little bit fatiguing especially if the recording is poor. My gut feeling is telling me this may not be actually due to the speakers but most likely to the amp. Is the NAD sound (R) a real thing? And is audiolab sound so much different?

So please go ahead and if you can make suggestions of other amps i could have a look at (within £600-700ish) then i'm fully open to these recommendations. I should say i prefer soundstage and composure of sound (maybe id describe that as instrument separation on more complicated music). I guess a bit of bass control wouldn't hurt. I do realize that compromises are to be made at sub £1000 price mark.

Thanks in advance!
 

pagan84

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Dec 19, 2019
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Hi! I have 6000A with B&W606 (some say they are bright LOOOOOL, where?), they have similar parameters to yours.
My guess would be that with louder sound the reflections becoming annoying and create 'harshness'. So my first step would be to put some PET panels on a wall behind the speakers and behind your head. They are thin and don't look ugly (not super cheap though).
Pre-first step: take your amp and speakers to a shop with a listening room, try to listen to it loud just to confirm your suspicions (or rule them out) then try with Audiolab. Covid is over, should be quite easy to find a music shop with a proper room. In Oct 2020 I spent over 3h in Music Matters in Solihull trying different stuff, so it is possible :) Good luck!
 

Michael Larkin

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May 9, 2021
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I have the Audiolab 6000A and the Quad S2s. My listening room is 19' x 11.5' and I listen across the short axis of the room at one end. I listen almost exclusively to ripped FLACs delivered to the amp from AIMP via a Douk Audio XMOS XU208 convertor that converts my Laptop's USB signal into Toslink optical (it also does Coax conversion if you prefer).

The S2s are superb, and the 6000A does them justice -- the sound is crisp and clear without being analytical, and the sound stage outstanding, almost holographic. It's a very involving combination and I can listen for hours on end. The bass of the combo is, again, extremely good, being tight and fast -- I find I have no need of a subwoofer -- and plays tunes that never smear the midrange and treble. You can have a bass guitar strutting its stuff and still make out clearly the delicate taps on cymbals or a triangle.

Some say that at 88dB sensitivity, the S2s are hard to drive by an amp with only 50 wpc, but so long as I don't try to take them to ridiculous volumes, I've never had a problem. The volume control scales very well across the range (doesn't start to distort from half way), and ever since I attached my speakers with Tellurium Q speaker cables, I've found that it increases the volume by around 3dB at any given setting.

For my next upgrade, I plan to use the 6000A as a preamp to drive an Audiolab 8300 XP power amp - see the youtube review here. I'd recommend an audition if possible, but imho, the 6000A is an outstanding piece of equipment at the price. You can have a 14-day home trial if you're prepared to pay a 90% security deposit (returnable in full if you decide not to buy).

At the price point you're interested in, I might also consider the Quad Vena 2 (an upgrade from the original version, and reportedly better than it was).

Good luck!
 
Last edited:

John760

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Dec 10, 2020
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I am using my Quad S2 speakers with a Denon AVR 4700. Sounds amazing.
 
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