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B&W 802N

To be honest with you I have never really liked B&W speakers but my brother loves them. He recently purchased a pair of them on here and now he is looking for the right electronics. Also with so many great things people have to say about the 802N's I am wondering why I do not like them. Maybe I have not heard them with the right electronics. I know that they are overall really efficent speakers (8ohms nominal and 91DB) so I am wondering if tubes would make them sound good.

I can get decent pricing on a pair of PrimaLuna Dialogue Seven Monoblocks (70 watts). Now as efficent as these speakers are I would figure these amps would power these nicely. One reviewer said that these amps would have no trouble with speakers as efficent as the 802n's!

Any thoughts on this combo??

Or if we need to go with a high power Solid State amp I was thinking that the Parasound A21 (250 watts) is a great deal here on Audiogon. We would pair the A21 with the matching JC2 preamp.

Any thoughts on this combo?
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Showing 1 response by steveaudio

steveaudio
331 posts
 
I spent years going down this path with my Matrix 802's. IMO you will go broke, or crazy, trying to use tubes w/large b&w's, unless maybe you could spring for huge VTL or ARC mono-blocs.

A large Parasound SS amp might start to do it, but like Angst0 said: "No way to get by "on the cheap" with these speakers".

OTOH: Your friend may like either of the amps you mentioned, for a while. If you don't pay too much used, you can always give an amp a try.....good luck!
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