Working backwards...


After six months of research, auditions, saving, and negotiating with the wife, I have acquired speakers that I’ll be keeping for several years - a pair of Spendor 1/2Es.

Over the next couple years I want to work backwards from these speakers and replace upstream components as funds become available. This is what I’m running right now:

Rotel RCD-1070 CDP
Rotel RA-1070 integrated amp
Proton 420 tuner (don’t laugh, it works just fine)
Spendor 1/2Es w/stands
Tara Labs Phase II speaker cable
Tara Labs RSC Air3 IC
Tara Labs Prism 55i IC
Ernie’s PCK12 power cord

My next acquisition will be to step up to separates. I can spend around $2K on a power amp and I’ve drawn up a list that I am actually looking to pare down to three candidates. I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone here who has run Spendor 1/2Es with any of these SS amps. The candidates are:

Conrad Johnson MF-2250A
Bryston 4BSST
Classe CA200
Krell KSA150
Plinius SA100 MkIII
McCormack DNA225
Mark Levinson 331

While I love the Spendor sound, I do miss some of the bass that I lost trading away my JBLs (maybe there’s a REL in my future), so I probably wouldn’t mind an amp that’s a little aggressive with reasonable slam. I'm assuming that I don't necessarily need a warm sounding amp to go with my Spendors. In addition, I’ll also need a basic (read: inexpensive) preamp to start with and I would appreciate any suggestions (Adcom, Rotel, NAD, or ???).

My living room/listening room is about 18x20’ and carpeted. While I still listen to a lot of classic rock, most of the new CDs I am buying are R&B and jazz.

Sorry for the long post – I would appreciate any educated opinions – Thanks!
ekistler_sj

Showing 1 response by shersta

Concerning the distance between your speaker and equipment: Now that you're moving to seperates, you have the option of placing your amp near the speakers and running a long interconnect from your preamp to your amp. I believe the accepted wisdom around here is that it's better to have a longer interconnect than speaker cable. Cheaper too!