Some brands of amplifiers that are accessible include:
Marantz, Arcam, Pro-Ject, NAD, Denon, Dynavox, Musical Fidelity, Onkyo, Cambridge Audio. There’s more but most others from what I’m seeing may be out of my current price range i.e. McIntosh, Mark Levinson, Accuphase, etc.
So what kinda budget are you going for then, and are there size constraints? I should have asked that earlier as the l200’s are fairly large
I suppose I’d prefer to be under $700 if possible. Size constraints…I mean…I don’t really have any as long as they stay in this Bookshelf speaker size kind of range, but ideally they wouldn’t be getting too massive. Right now the Q150 is here so the L200 would be about 4 inches taller and a few inches deeper which definitely is a difference, but I’m not sure that it would be a problem I think.
Obviously the S400 is basically identical in size to Q150 except in height where it’s about 2-3 inches taller than Q150, which is pretty impressive actually.
Gotcha, sounds good. Also I can’t remember, but can your adi 2 act as a pre out so you could control volume with it? If so, you could get a pure power amp and shove it under a desk or off to the side
Yes it can. It has separate volume control for line out, headphone out, and iem out. And to be honest, that would actually be a pretty good setup to have my adi 2 handle it all since it also has a remote. Hmmmm… 
1 Like
Hmmm, stuff like the Marantz MM7025 or other options becomes an option lol
Wait, ignore the marantz because that isn’t rated for lower than 6 ohms. While this shouldn’t have any problems, just to be save I don’t think it would be a good fit for the 4 ohm polks
If they’re reasonably priced for shipping/customs to you, Audiophonics (French dealer) has a whole mess of well-made Hypex nCore-based amplifiers that don’t run a whole lot more than just DIY’ing the kits yourself. I just scooped an MPA-S252NC myself (for use with my LSiM703s), and it’s PLENTY more than I’ll ever need for nearfield or a small-to-medium room. They ought to be a good match for your ADI 2.
Honestly you just want around over 100wpc at 4 ohms for a power amp and he should be just fine depending on the model
Yeah going for a Hypex nCore based amplifier is definitely something that has been on my radar since I hang out in the ASR forums a bit as well. That may be a good idea. Especially that MPA-S252NC. That’s actually pretty insane value tbh.
Right now I’ve just got a consumer Sony DH-790 which is supposedly rated at 145W into 6 ohms. And from what I read on the ASR measurements, as far as consumer-grade integrated amps go, it’s one of the better ones. So it’s what I’d rock with for now until I get a new set of speakers that needed something better.
I was also looking at the NAD C316BEE which seems to be an over 40w continuous and 140w dynamic power into 4 ohms at a fairly reasonable price too. And it’s an integrated. Though I suppose this would be not enough for the polks.
My larger concern right now is that it seems that I really can’t find the Polks for sale anywhere in europe. Bizarre. If that ends up being the case and a local dealer can’t get them for me without some insane markup, it may just be disqualified on that basis alone, which is a real damn shame.
Be aware that it’s only 40 watts RMS and the dynamic rating is somewhat useless. If you can’t find the polks at a reasonable price, no problem, there are other options
Is it? I was always under the impression that the majority of the time the power requirements of your speaker would be at low values and only occasionally would it require these higher power requirements, hence why peak power is an even reported value. Is this wrong?
Alright. Let’s go with the assumption that Polks are currently unattainable for whatever reason. We spoke about the Buchardts a bit, which may be a good option too, but perhaps not the best for my setup as you mentioned.
@MadGman mentioned Genelecs. These seem really interesting and I’ve heard of them only in passing, but always positive things. However, I worry here that they are intended as Studio Monitors and not necessarily as hifi speakers, leading to a potentially overly analytical tuning (as my experience with Adam T5V was - to some extent). Does this tend to be the case here?
EDIT: Apparently I can’t post anymore today as it’s my first day on the forum…lame. I’ll DM and answer more tomorrow I suppose. lol
That is true, but having more consistent output headroom is important and that also depends on the speaker you are using. It also depends on the speakers you are using.
Regarding genelecs, they are pretty great but my only concern is that it won’t match your preferences. They can absolutely be used as hifi speakers for sure, but it just depends on preference
Cambridge audio minx201 x2 and whatever speakers u fancy. The minx is clean and goes pretty low. Small as hell footprint. U can use them as your stands(with iso later between).
You can look at 3-4" woofers with them handling low end
edit: just as an alternative option, you said no subwoofer because of the room, but these act more like a larger woofer that digs deep then a subwoofer imo if that makes sense. they are fast and not boomy in any way.
Sooooo I can post again! Yay! Thanks @M0N haha
So yeah. Just reiterating what was mentioned in the DM for continuity of this thread:
@M0N gotcha! thanks for that. What do you think makes the Genelecs potentially unsuitable for me?
@joshua_g Seems like a great sub option! Thanks for the rec. Though the issue for me is the desk setup and the space around it. I wouldn’t be able to place a woofer in a reasonable location that would have any positive effect acoustically for me sitting at a desk (i.e. I’d only hear it and/or feel it and/or experience its effect when being much further away from my desk).
It’s not that they are unsuitable, it’s just that they may be very harsh with what you listen to. They are very revealing, and that can be a both good thing or bad thing
Just throwing another option out there, does anyone have experience with Dynaudio? Anything in their lineup that might be a good fit for @StefanKamer? I was going to possibly suggest Triangle Audio as well, but I think their house sound tends to run slightly bright (although a lot of people really like them).
Oh yeah dynaudio is great, I recommended a pair above
out of curiosity, what do you like about the Q150 and what do you not like about them? The LS50 is arguably the best nearfield speaker in existence and the 150 is very must a first cousin or there abouts to the LS50. I use Q100 for my desktop setup and they work very well due to the front firing port but I’d give up a little bit of sound for additional desktop realestate in a heartbeat if I could find something I knew I’d love. The desk isn’t my main listening and when I want o listen at my desk, I put on headphones.
Short question should have been, why do you want to get rid of the speakers you currently have?