B & W Matrix 801 S3 and tube amplifier

Pvctor - I am wondering if a 60W tube amp such as Conrad Johnson MV 60 or Premier 11A would do the job for mostly low level listening in a small-mid size room. Does anybody have experience with similar combination ?

Hi Pvctor – hows it going fellow canuckeer ?

Yes it should work.

But like anything else in this hobby especially an amp it should be trialed – imo – unless the money involved is no big deal so you can sell it later if you don’t like it.

Set the amp for the 4 ohm tap. My Music Reference RM9 tube amp sounds great with my 801’s at 4ohms. My Classe amp sounds ok with them too.

The 801’s are a fairly easy medium load - imo. Acoustats are a hard load. FrenchFries gave good advice imo – they are looking for a clean signal and don’t go down to 1 or 2 ohms.

The better the signal the better the sound quality. They are like looking in the mirror as far as your gear/room goes.

I asked the fellow that made my OTL’s that I run my 801s with about that CJ amp.

His reply.

“This amp is a copy of the Williamson circuit from 1947 without the driver stage. Not very quick and average bass performance.
The typical EL-34 and KT-88 output tubes have very high resistance necessitating a large turns ratio in the output transformer. On these type of tube amplifiers if a 8 ohm output is connected to a 4 ohm speaker the primary of the output transformer almost doubles in impedance. This affects the power transfer from the output tubes to the transformer resulting in reduced output wattage. The performance will not suffer, just the output.”

Cheers

05-06-13: Marakanetz
frequently blown output tubes guarranteed even at low listening levels as the best case scenario while could be far more complicated problems driving loads that substantially exceeding the amplifier abilities. tube pre OK, but not tube amp.

Must have been quite the scene at your place Marakanetz... When did you own the 801s and what tube amp ?

Rrog and Marakanetz

When someone asks for an opinion I like to read about direct experiences and real data. Based on the OP’s requirements – which may change, my reply was based on his OP. I figure he can make a decision based on his own.

How do we know he doesn't have a friend down the street who has this amp he can borrow. We don't. Not enough info yet.

Just remember when someone says:

Yes it should work

This implies it will work – you will get sound - does not imply it will sound good to the OP. This is subjective.

Which is why I said.

But like anything else in this hobby especially an amp it should be trialed – imo – unless the money involved is no big deal so you can sell it later if you don’t like it.

05-08-13: Rrog
"“This amp is a copy of the Williamson circuit from 1947 without the driver stage. Not very quick and average bass performance."

This is just the opposite of what the 801's 12" woofer needs to sound its best.

Rrog - I agree which is why I put it out there for Pvctor to consider.

Cheers

Hi Pvctor

Attached are a couple of graphs from B&W for the 801 matrix.

801 Impedance Curve

Note the 4 ohm symbol. Not sure why it was plotted on this paper. You can also find plotted graphs on the stereophile review of the S2.

801 Frequency Response with & without BAF

The above graph is from the UK. All 800 matrix series B&W speakers are an active design as you are probably aware, and were meant to be run with the BAF and were shipped with them. Unfortunately these ended up getting lost as speakers went from one owner to the next.
The BAF’s allow for extension to 20hz on 801’s. This is documented in the owners manuals. The BAF’s also make the speaker more sensitive then the advertised 87 db. More bass extension and sensitivity is documented in the B&W BAF owners manual as well. My listening confirms this. I have owned my 801 S3 for 18 years. I own a couple different BAF versions.

Hope this helps and good luck with them.

Any questions you can reach out to me at [email protected]

Cheers