New Amps to match up with PSB T3 speakers


Hi All,I'm looking to upgrade my Bel Canto Ref 1000 MK2 monos and wonder what amps you think would match up with the T3's? The current amps OK but sometimes on the sharp sounding side for me. Any advice?Joe
Ag insider logo xs@2xdonpepe

Showing 2 responses by georgehifi

George:Mcintosh literature reports 450 watts across 8,4 and 2omhs.Sadly, i have never heard the 452 bought it at the urging of a friend who loves Mac’s.
Looked at both, and though I’m not a believer in having output transformers on solid state amps, yes both the 450 and the 452 have 4ohm speaker taps and should be fine, they both even have 2ohm taps and that could be even tighter and controled in the bass than the 4ohm, try both.

My pick out of the list you posted, would be the Ayre MX-R first Bat VK-600SE second, Pass third. 
"The MXR input impedance was extremely high, at least 1 megohm even at 20kHz: The MX-R won’t load down the partnering preamplifier at all."
Which means all forms of sources or preamps will be perfect match with this, source direct, tube pre’s, solid state pre’s, passive pre’s and tvc pre’s


Cheers George

donpepe
New Amps to match up with PSB T3 speakers


An amp cable of running into a 4ohm load continuously without breaking a sweat, would be ideal, as this graph shows most of the bass will present to the amp as 4ohms, and that’s where all the power is needed.
https://www.stereophile.com/images/816PSBT3fig1.jpg
The minimum value is 3.5 ohms at 85Hz, and the phase angle (dotted trace) is generally low. Any amplifier that is comfortable driving 4 ohms will have no difficulty with the Imagine T3.
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/psb-imagine-t3-loudspeaker-measurements#GZR7pZC0BuBOkOK1.99


Whatever you get, see if Stereophile has done a review on it, and see in the test bench measurements if it’s happy doing 4ohms.

Cheers George