For classical music lovers best amp for large orchestral forces?


I recently upgraded my pre to an arc ref 6se. Currently using pas xa25. It's a very good amp but I'm noticing a fair amount of compression when playing large symphonic works. My speakers are Dalis and they are excellent as is the arc.

For smaller forces, chamber, piano and voices the system works beautifully. But if I'm looking for more transparency and a deeper sound stage for symphonies I find sometimes a boxy cramped sound. Looking to spend around 8k or less either tube or solid state. There have been discussions about the xa25 and what's better but they fill up immediately with tangents of philosophical and technical discussions of how one hears. I'm looking for as many possibilities of actual units that I can read about and possibly hear.

Thanks for your ideas.

roxy1927

I listen to classical music 90% of the time and am a retired classical musician. ‘The amp I use is the Benchmark AHB2.
It produces a room filling realistic orchestral sound, yet is greatly detailed.
I highly recommend it.

Dear @roxy1927 : " I have been thinking to matching with the arc... ". Well that’s an alternative but for me not the " rigth " one because an amplifier must be matched, first than all , with the speakers: period.

 

In that sense one great alternative are the JC 1+ monoblocks that are a true challenge even against CH or any other top amplifier ( D'Angostino, Boulder, ML, SimsAudio, Gryphon, etc. ) and the JC 1+ was/is designed by a extremely well regarded electronic designer that’s is John Curl.

Take a look here and I can tell you that you can’t go wrong with and that in the future you will not need to " look " for a different amps. You can be sure that the JC 1+ can outperforms almost all the " names " posted by other gentlemans:

 

https://parasound.com/jc1+.php

 

Your call.

 

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

 

 

The Benchmark is very inexpensive. In the world of high end audio one asks what is going on? I'm not doubting you I'm just thinking wow.