I owned N804s for a while and found that the only amps/preamps that could tame down the HF shrill were McIntosh amps. They brought about an incredibly real warmness that I had never heard with my Krells. You can get a McIntosh setup within your budget used (off ebay if you ask me). With all due respect to Sugarbrie, I totally disagree with the power doubling if you halve the impedance since this boils down to marketing and not engineering. In order to really know what a certain amp can do, you need performance graphs which most makers won't readily give out (except for McIntosh, but that has been a trademark of theirs for over 40 years). Power output is somewhat indirectly related to impedance in reality due to dynamic response of the system in a closed loop (which is in turn dependant on many design factors). For the power to double with half the impedance only describes a small portion of the power curve SLOPE. This slope can be easily modified for marketing reasons by means of frequency but essentially, the dynamic headroom can be prematurely compromised if the slope is too high (called degeneration - especially pronounced in field-effect devices). Therefore, slope is only part of the story and, in a good amp design, is inconsequential provided the amp can perform dynamically (music is purely dynamic so this is obviously critical).
If he wants warmth, IMO, he should at least try McIntosh with MIT cables. I ultimately sold my beautiful N804s because even that setup was not warm enough for my taste (I like SS and not tube because all my schooling is in SS design). It is worth a try nonetheless! Paradigm Reference 100s were the key for me. Good luck
If he wants warmth, IMO, he should at least try McIntosh with MIT cables. I ultimately sold my beautiful N804s because even that setup was not warm enough for my taste (I like SS and not tube because all my schooling is in SS design). It is worth a try nonetheless! Paradigm Reference 100s were the key for me. Good luck