According to Stereophile measurements for both the 7B and DNA-1, your amplifier should have no trouble driving the speakers up to and near their full potential. Both were tested and measurements are all available online. That said, if you’re really itching for an amplifier upgrade, and depending on your budget (and your current preamp), a Krell FBP series amplifier may be an improvement.
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Late to the discussion, but agree w/the last couple comments regarding jumpers. I tried several 5 to be exact .. (prices approximate) - AntiCable level 2.1 about $50- - an eBay audiophiles take on Dueland wire w/silver banana's, $99- - Tuneful Cables, $50- - Maze Audio reference $50- - AntiCable Signature jumpers $175- All were burned in 20-30 hours before my A/B'ing .. Hands down all the cable sounded more expansive and natural than compared to the brass straps on my 7b's.The Dueland audiophile made (brand forthcoming) were terminated w/silver solder and silver plated banana's. They were brighter, with good stage characteristics, balancing out the warmth of the Aerials, but left a huge dry gap in bass performance. The Tuneful cables performed well but were not a standout. Both version of the AntiCables offered the best overall performance, with the Signature version way outperforming all. Paul of AntiCable described to me a long search to find the right solder compound to terminate the his best wire to the spade/banana. For background .. I am running the 7b's w/a Counterpoint NPS 400 (200 wpc @ 8ohm & 400 @ 4 ohms) recently re-tubed by Sam in Michigan w updated Silver level HiFi Tuning fuses (Directly fed by Oppo 205). With burn-in time it is a SWEET combination blowing my walls out with great depth and staging. I do have to put a plug in for Bionic Wire InterConnect (Wow!) using XLR from Oppo to Counterpoint. Using Mosaic speaker cables, Shunyata everywhere (Python/Delta NR) except for a Darwin Cable Silver power cord into the amp .. replaced 1 of my Pythons nicely. |
If you look at the impedance graph of the 7B’s you’ll see they spend a lot of time where the power and current are needed from an amp, in the 3-4ohm region between 30hz to 500hz. https://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/A7bfig1.jpg The amp that’s needed is one that is comfortable at 2-3ohms, and one that has good current delivery. The stock DNA-1 will have no trouble, tested at: 191W into 8 ohms 352W into 4 ohms 510W into 2 ohms Yours with an even bigger transformer, is better again. And the DNA-1’s gain is very high, an input voltage of just 100mV in gives full 191w output, that and with 100kohms input impedance, this amp is begging for a good passive preamp. Cheers George |
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