I recently got Sonus Faber Electa Amator II driving them with a Denon PMA2000AE or a VA Exclame 100. I got the Denon a few years ago to drive Sonor Audio Capella's which I was told were difficult speakers to drive. The Denon is a high current design and can do 80W into 8 ohms or 160W into 4 ohms which means that it should have some headroom for a 6 ohm nominal load of the Capellas. I was very pleased with the combination as it brought new levels of detail, airiness and soundstage and boy could it rock if you wanted it to. The bass on something like Seal's killer or Metallica's Enter the sandman punched you in the chest when the volume was turned up (still below 50% of the dial).
I then got a "lesser" system for my small office (3 x 4 m) consisting of a Concertino, Audiolab 8200 and Exclame 100. I quickly found that the mids and highs of the Concertinos was superior to the Capellas although the Capellas rocked better and then I got the Electa Amators II and was told right of the bat that I need some decent power. I listened carefully and found that the Denon at higher than 25% of the dial sounded as good as the concertinos in the mid and highs and had sufficient bass (closer to the Capellas than to the Concertinos) but the real magic happened if you turned it to 25% or less. What I thought was good with the old system became 2 dimensional compared to the EA II at these levels but as soon as I go above it, I started loosing the extra magic. This brought me to the conclusion that I really need the 300W plus high end amplification.
Looking at what Mark and Levinson, Krell etc are going used for (R35 000+/channel excluding pre), I can not afford that at the moment - I will need a long time to be desensitise for that amount of money. I read about the Emotiva XPA-1 500W monoblocks (haven't heard them) new for around R30000 for a pair. I am trying to find out if they will be a close second to something like the ML 531h or will the XPA-1's just be something to make me realise I need something like the ML and actually waste my money experimenting with the XPA-1's.
I then got a "lesser" system for my small office (3 x 4 m) consisting of a Concertino, Audiolab 8200 and Exclame 100. I quickly found that the mids and highs of the Concertinos was superior to the Capellas although the Capellas rocked better and then I got the Electa Amators II and was told right of the bat that I need some decent power. I listened carefully and found that the Denon at higher than 25% of the dial sounded as good as the concertinos in the mid and highs and had sufficient bass (closer to the Capellas than to the Concertinos) but the real magic happened if you turned it to 25% or less. What I thought was good with the old system became 2 dimensional compared to the EA II at these levels but as soon as I go above it, I started loosing the extra magic. This brought me to the conclusion that I really need the 300W plus high end amplification.
Looking at what Mark and Levinson, Krell etc are going used for (R35 000+/channel excluding pre), I can not afford that at the moment - I will need a long time to be desensitise for that amount of money. I read about the Emotiva XPA-1 500W monoblocks (haven't heard them) new for around R30000 for a pair. I am trying to find out if they will be a close second to something like the ML 531h or will the XPA-1's just be something to make me realise I need something like the ML and actually waste my money experimenting with the XPA-1's.
