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Stereo power amp recommendation for Harbeth 30.2s

CDMC

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I do find great pleasure in the sound now coming from my Harbeth's, but constantly wonder whether it is indeed true, as suggested herein, that all well-built amps are agnostic (or fairly so). Notwithstanding the objective science of the physics, there is too much information supporting the subjective aspect of listening to music. It's hard for the unsophisticated to know what amps are actually built better and what amps are so much the product of good marketing. When I go on forums like Audiogon, I feel that I am not being taking seriously because the known scribes seem to simply shout back and forth at each other and also have the apparent ability to change equipment like socks. Cheers.

We go through this discussion regularly. For every person who claims there are vast differences in the sound of amplifiers, those differences disappear once tested blind. It happens without fail. The same thing happens with cables, dacs, preamps, power supplies, and source components.

There are two huge factors in how your system sounds, the room and the speakers in the room. Unless your amplifier is clipping, changing amplifiers will only change the sound in your mind. You will be happy with the new toy and believe it sounds better, until a few weeks later, when you are no longer happy with the new toy. It is the subjective audiophile curse, changing non-existent changes, never being happy, because nothing has changed.

If you believe you are running out of power, go purchase a Nord, NAD, March Audio, IOM, Apollon, or Audiphonics hypex or purifi amplifier. For about $800 you can get a NC502 based hypex which puts out 500w/ch into 4 ohms and 350w/ch into 8 ohms. This will comfortably drive your speakers beyond their mechanical limits.

If you really want to make an improvement in your sound, as other have suggested, start by adding a pair of subwoofers with a crossover to high pass your 30.2s, which will result in 1) lower distortion of your main speakers, 2) increased dynamic capability for your main speakers, and 3) smoother bass which in turn will sound much tighter.

You don't say what your front end is, but if it were me, I would take a long hard look at a Mini DSP SHD. For $1200 you get a streamer/dac/preamp that has full bass management, and excellent DSP. Add to it a pair of Rythmik L12 subwoofers ($1120 shipped) and for less than $2,400 you can transform your current system by minimizing the huge bass variances that all rooms have, cleaning up the midrange by relieving your speakers of bass duty below 80 hz and the distortion that it imparts in other frequencies covered by the driver (especially here where your bass driver handles all duties up to about 1500hz) and increase your dynamic range and capability. A side effect is you will also have solid bass extension to 20hz, which even though you think it doesn't make a significant difference, does with a great deal of music.

You have a choice you can make, stay on the treadmill of making "changes" to your system that have no audible effect and never being happy or making quantifiable changes that will result in actual improvements and long term satisfaction. Getting off the treadmill and enjoying the music is far more preferable in my book.
 
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Panelhead

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Or get a AHB2, Purifi based amp, or a StarkCrimson. You will then not “hear” the amplifier.
 

iwantobelieve

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I can’t speak to the Monitor 30 specifically, but when I did several demos of SHL5+ and C7ES-3 we tried several amps at the dealers. Naim and Krell (of memory serves 70 and 150 WPC) sounded a little edgy, which I mentioned, a Mcintosh 300WPC amp was switched in and sounded utterly effortless.

Ive found at home that the C7s like a lot of good clean power, I wouldn’t personally go much below 200WPC if I had the choice and I don’t even listen that loud.
 

iwantobelieve

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Oh, and I agree with the recommendations to get a sub and crossover, the Harbeths sound much better to me when they are not being pushed so hard to reproduce the lowest bass notes. I’ve heard REL work well although I’m using an old Meridian SW1600.
 

Willem

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I appreciate that this is an old thread, but that does not change the argument. Last Saturday we went to a live concert of nineteenth century and contemporary music played by a smallish orchestra with some 20 musicians. I was struck by how loud the music was, and how dynamic. Of course, the sound was also clear and undistorted :). I do not think any speaker can reproduce that dynamic clarity in a private listening room. One reason is obviously that no room is really large enough to sound quite right, but no speaker can handle the necessary power either.
So what can be done? A powerful amplifier helps, but not beyond a certain point. A larger room is important, but often harder to achieve. The easiest thing is to add two or more subwoofers and a high pass filter for the main speakers. The high pass filter relieves the main speakers and amplifier from the heavy lifting of the lowest frequencies, and the powered subwoofers provide cheap mega power amplification and extend the frequency range into the regions almost no main speakers can reach. All that has to be added to this mix is some form of dsp room equalization.
 
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