Choosing speaker amp

[infurnus99]

Hello forumers, I recently got myself a pair of sp bs22lr for myself. Im planning to power the pair of speakers using the receiver that i have laying in my garage (Sherwood R507). I am having a topping e30 Dac in my setup. Should I replace the receiver with some integrated amp to get a better audio? I was looking at NAD C338 and Cambride Audio CXA81. Will it be too overkilled to get them before getting a good set of speaker? BTW im planning to get the genelec 8030c afterwards. Any pros here can guide me what should I get myself next

 

[Drengur]

I would probably buy something "better", for myself. However you should start with plugging in the Sherwood and see how it does. Perhaps you will find you are content with that setup. If you are looking for recommendations I would think more info would be useful for those ready to make such recommendations; how large is the room, what is your use-case (what do you listen to). I would not overspend on an amplifier personally, as I do believe the speakers are by far the most important part of the audio-chain, provided there is no link that is broken.

 

[DVDdoug]

The Sherwood has plenty of power so unless there's "something wrong" a separate amplifier won't make any difference. The most likely "weakness" would be noise so if you're not hearing noise (hum or hiss) you're fine. (And if you are hearing noise, try to confirm if it's being generated in the receiver before you blame the receiver.)

Distortion and frequency response in modern electronics are almost always better than human hearing (as long as you don't over-drive the amp into clipping).

The Genelecs are active/powered monitors so you don't need an amplifier. And if you want to use the Sherwood as a "control center" make sure it has "preamp outputs" for active speakers.

If you want to make an improvement I'd suggest adding a subwoofer... A 4 or 5-inch "woofer" isn't going to put-out much bass.

 

[nerdstrike]

Seems to me that a hypothetical Genelec active purchase down the road would remove the need for future-proof amping. Save your pounds/dollars, and go free or cheap. I got on fine with 40w per channel for a long time with bookshelves, and even that was probably overkill.

Maybe an 80w amp like the CXA81 will sound better, or maybe you'll fire your woofers across the room. Who can say?