Ideal amp for B&W matrix 800


Hello everyone, I am looking for a great amp for my B&W MATRIX 800 speakers (the tall ones with the angular shaped bass cabinets, not the nautilus ones!).
I have a tight budget and live in Belgium.
My cd is Accuphase 500, preamp is solid state, no tone controls magnum Mp330.
I am looking for a 3d soundstage with lots of depth and emotional music playing. I therefore think of class A amps.
Hence... older krells? Tube amps would be a bad match as the speakers each have two 12 inch woofers. They are 4Ohms, with an impedance dip to 3 ohms in 100-200 Hz region. they are 93 dB/1W sensitivity though...
I could spend about 2000 euro but would prefer around 1000-1500 so I have budget for an accuphase preamp for phono (a c-280 or so). Would appreciate your input guys!
At the moment I localised a krell KSA-100 MKii for 850 e, a Krell KSA-200 S for 1750 e, a Krell FPB for 2000 e...
Or a Pass X250 for 2400 e.... Other suggestions are very welcomen these or just the ones that I found on sale some place now... I have never heard any of these amps...
blueskywalker

Showing 2 responses by 4bucc

I owned these wonderful speakers for many years. You are on the right track getting a high current amp but if you can afford it, get an active electronic crossover (I used a Marchand) and a tube amp so you can bi-amp with the tubes on the mid/tweeters and the high current amp on the woofers (you have to disable the woofer crossovers-it's easy). It makes a huge difference. I'm sorry I ever got rid of these speakers-they're amazing!
My system was: Bat VK-51SE preamp, Pass crossover, McIntosh MC2000 for the mid/tweeter, Krell FPB 700cx for the bass and, of course, the B&W Matrix 800's. I have since changed almost everything to Pipedream 18 speakers, Tact 2.2XP preamp (with crossover), VTL S-400 amp for mid/tweeter, Krell FPB 700cx for bass. We never seem satisfied but it's fun.