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Amp for Eidolon again

I know this has been somewhat covered before, but I was wondering if anyone with hands on experience with the Eidolons could advise. They are currently being driven by a pair of BEL amps rated at 200w at 8 ohms.The spec sheet for the amps does not give output into 4 ohms, but it gives a spec of 400w into 1 ohm which leads me to believe that the output into the Eidolon's 4 ohm load is considerably less. Don't get me wrong, the speakers sound very good and are extremely detailed and resolving, but I can't help wondering if I need more power to properly open up these speakers and bring out the best in them. Do you think its worthwhile to upgrade to a more powerful amp? The new Parasound JC1 is intriguing. I've also read that the Ayre V1x has enough power and mates well with the Eidolons. The Spectral 360 and Accuphase 50v are too expensive. Then there is the option to go with a cheaper high power amp like the Sunfire. Thanks.

bobbob
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Look no further. This would be the last amp you would purchase for a long time. There are maybe a handful of amps that could even begin to approach the detail, transparency, tonal accuracy, speed, bass, etc. of this amp. But those others are many times the price of this one. And in my opinion, the others will still fall short in some to many categories.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstran&1039985342

-IME
tbird
33 posts
 
Try the Classe CAM 350 monoblock, at 7000.00 list they are a lot better than more costly amps out there. Plus you do not have to pay list. Makes the Eidolons sound very good.
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kennyb
117 posts
 
I was VERY impressed with Eidolons being driven by a pair of Spectral DMA-360s. Being that the 360 was out of my price range, I asked the dealer to switch to the Spectral DMA-150 Mk2 stereo amp.

I honestly could not detect a difference in the sound between the two amps. Either way the sound was fantastic! Both amps seemed equal in their ability to "open up" the speakers.

I should point out that I listened only at my "normal" levels (or just slightly above). I did not try to crank up the volume in order to see if the amp would run out of juice.

You should definitely try to demo a more powerful amp with your speakers before giving up on your BEL amps. You may not need the extra power.

It's also important to keep in mind that the power rating of an amp doesn't tell the whole story. The 150 wpc Spectral amp gets my Aerial 10Ts to open up as good as -- or possibly even better than -- the 300 wpc Krell FPB-300 that it replaced.

Ken
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