Simaudio W-5 or Pass X-250 for Dynaudio Special 25


Hi,

I'm thinking about upgrading my McCormack DNA-125 to either one of these amps and though I'm sure either one would work very well, I'd like to know if anyone has a strong preference one way or the other. Of course, I'm open to other suggestions as well. I want an amp that has iron-fisted control but is not at all strident or sterile. $3,000 range is where I'm looking. Rest of system is as follows:

Denon DVD-3800
Proceed AVP2
McCormack DNA-125

Thanks.
tim916

Showing 2 responses by tim916

Stiltskin,

Slightly OT, but did you by any chance audition the Confidence C1 as well? When I purchased my Special 25's the dealer had C1's on hand but he thought the 25 would be a better speaker for my room (which at the time it was) so I never listened to them. However, since then I have heard a lot of good things about the C1's.

Thanks for your imput on the amps. At this point I am leaning a bit towards the W-5, mainly because it has a good reputation of having synergy with Dyns.
My set up is for both HT and 2-ch. The DVD-3800 actually acts as a transport for the AVP2 which has pretty good DAC's built into it. It will work as an analog preamp but in order to do that I would have to turn off the sub output which would screw things up for HT. I realize that I am compromising 2-channel sound with this type of system but I use it for 50/50 music and movies so that is ok. Being in a large room (21 x 15 with 11ft ceiling) I figure the 25's might be able to use some extra juice.