So like the title says, i’ll probably use a Micca Origin or something along those lines for preamps and headphone switching and i’m looking for a more powerful AMP, and i see there are not really a lot of options in a decent price range, nothing under 200-300$ range from my searches. Most tap out at 80-100 and depending on the class/quality you can’t really use all that power without distortion anyway.
Sooooo, i am thinking why not go big or go home and get a crown, the xls 1502 or the one Zeos is using in the living room the xls 2502. I am thinking more about options, because that would power whatever i may ever need in stereo mode no issues and maybe i can get a second one later on for an even crazier setup.
Any issues with my reasoning? what i may foresee as a problem would be maybe the distortion which may be a bit higher then a normal amp (THD <0.5%) , probably placing it somewhere were it doesn’t ruin the whole look of the desk and maybe power draw/usage something like that, and the inherit danger of blowing anything and everything up due to the power it outputs of course.
Any thoughts on that? or maybe options in the same price range that makes sense in the 200-400$ range?
Oh sorry if i was a bit vague, i am looking for a speaker amp, the Emotiva A-100 has around 80 Watts per channel for speakers, and i am not sure all of those are usable.
well, if you need it for speakers, then that’s perfect as that’s what they’re originally intended for. the only thing you have to ensure is that they have enough wattage to drive your speakers. that said, just to be thorough, your speakers aren’t powered? if they are powered, you don’t need an amp, you need a DAC.
also, if the wattage of the A100 is higher than your speakers, that’s not an issue either as that’s what the amp can provide when asked, it’s not what they push, so your speakers won’t be damaged by it.
What about the NAD D3020v2? It’s compact and sounds excellent, although I just wish it had a USB input
Edit: it does not meet your power requirement, but it will be a step up in quality of sound. I should also add that some believe that these amps are underrated on their power delivery
Edit 2: if you want only a pure amp, the NAD C 316BEE V2 is also another great choice. I just find NAD gear very transparent sounding at a good price
I guess another question would be do you really need more power? What would lead you to believe you need more power? You did state you were using them on a desk, and if you are using them as near field, I’d be very shocked if you actually had to use more than 50 watts
Also, I wouldn’t recommend going about .5 THD but you will pay more for lower distortion figures, or will have to check out other amp classifications outside of D and T.
You may just want a better quality amplifier than more power @Foosa. See if you can measure how many watts you are actually using for your speakers, and then decide if you truly need more power.
The Emotiva A-300 doesn’t look too bad, but based on the measurement of the xls 1502 it had a THD < 0.2% at low power that went down to 0.008% at 350 watts at 4 Ohms, so it seems pretty clean. Also forgot to mention I am in Europe so Emotiva is a bit more expensive here and harder to find, it’s definitely in the xls 2502 price range.
Regarding the NAD 3020 V2 it seems quite low power, a good overall solution but i’ll already have something like that feeding the amp, i want just a raw good massive amp.
Regarding the what it will be driving, i don’t know, i’m probably getting Micca RB42 and i know Zeos was saying they are inefficient, but the point is i will definitely buy more speakers and try them out and change my setup over time, but i would prefer not to change my amp every time my power needs change, so i would prefer something really solid so i can swap out different speakers.
Maybe some cheap British amazing stuff i don’t know about?
If you’re in Europe, why not get some local branded speakers? They should be much cheaper than buying Micca’s. I suggest something from Q Acoustics, Wharfedale, KEF, or Dali. There may be more I’m missing there, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.
