Hi,
We'll be buying a Tannoy XT 6F for the living room and now looking for the rest of the chain.
We don't need full fledged home theater capabilities nor phono; perhaps a sub down the road if we'll feel the 38Hz @ -6db to be on the thin side.
I've been reading here for some time now, and this is what I've gathered so far (from an objective performance perspective):
- DACs seem to be pretty much a solved problem. 200$ can seal the deal with a Topping D50s, which will give all the utility we need with practically flawless performance both in terms of human hearing capabilities and compared to performance limits of other components in the chain.
- Headphone amps are also pretty much done: 100$ on the JDS Labs Atom fitted with something like the D50, and performance is strictly limited to HP capabilities.
From this, I was hoping that at around 300$ one can find an essentially flawless power amp and forget about "the chain" for all eternity.
But then I saw how relatively poor typical power amps/AVRs measure here and was a bit let down.
Sure, I can drop 3K on the Ahb2 or 1K on the NC400 (and possibly the Purifi 1ET400A at the same ballpark), but that's way above my budget, which would've otherwise been spent on a better speaker.
Are there really no good (objective) budget performers out there? And if 300$ guarantees mediocre performance, would it be worth dropping the DAC+amp concept and just go for a receiver?
More concrete questions:
1. For the Tannoy's specs (Z = 8ohm, sensitivity = 90db, continuous power = 75W peak RMS, peak power handling = 300W), what should I look for in an amp? Specifically, will the Onkyo A-9110 integrated be able to suitably drive the Tannoys?
2. What good candidates are there within this budget? (and is it at all realistic?) Not afraid of DIY if this can help.
Cheers!
Johnathan
We'll be buying a Tannoy XT 6F for the living room and now looking for the rest of the chain.
We don't need full fledged home theater capabilities nor phono; perhaps a sub down the road if we'll feel the 38Hz @ -6db to be on the thin side.
I've been reading here for some time now, and this is what I've gathered so far (from an objective performance perspective):
- DACs seem to be pretty much a solved problem. 200$ can seal the deal with a Topping D50s, which will give all the utility we need with practically flawless performance both in terms of human hearing capabilities and compared to performance limits of other components in the chain.
- Headphone amps are also pretty much done: 100$ on the JDS Labs Atom fitted with something like the D50, and performance is strictly limited to HP capabilities.
From this, I was hoping that at around 300$ one can find an essentially flawless power amp and forget about "the chain" for all eternity.
But then I saw how relatively poor typical power amps/AVRs measure here and was a bit let down.
Sure, I can drop 3K on the Ahb2 or 1K on the NC400 (and possibly the Purifi 1ET400A at the same ballpark), but that's way above my budget, which would've otherwise been spent on a better speaker.
Are there really no good (objective) budget performers out there? And if 300$ guarantees mediocre performance, would it be worth dropping the DAC+amp concept and just go for a receiver?
More concrete questions:
1. For the Tannoy's specs (Z = 8ohm, sensitivity = 90db, continuous power = 75W peak RMS, peak power handling = 300W), what should I look for in an amp? Specifically, will the Onkyo A-9110 integrated be able to suitably drive the Tannoys?
2. What good candidates are there within this budget? (and is it at all realistic?) Not afraid of DIY if this can help.
Cheers!
Johnathan