The Two Channel Advice Thread

I have the P3esr-xd's (bought from a European dealer shutting down) and they are baller / lovely. Run 'em with a Rel T-Zero Mk III. I do wish that my office had enough room for me to put them on stands a few feet away, because as lovely as they are truly near field, they are better with more room to breathe (back wall, and distance to ear). I used to run my Vienna Acoustics Haydn's near field, and now that I have them in my "other" office with full room to breathe, they are different beasts entirely. In a good way.

 

Like many people I spend a considerable amount of time at my home desk. My current desktop setup is an Asgard 3 headphone amplifier in double duty as preamp, a Wiim streamer and powered Edifier speakers.

Looking to switch to passive speakers with moderate sentitivity (~90 dB) and I'm wondering what my options are for a power amp. My criteria are:
1. Musical sound, not clinical, which I guess will be helped by using the Asgard 3 as preamp.
2. Medium to small size.
3. Under $1000.

I like Schiit so looking at Aegir and Gjallarhorn. What else should be I looking at? I could also consider an integrated amp.

Thanks!

 

I would look at pro near field monitors (including ATC of course) since they're designed to be listened to at 3 to 5 away. They're pretty much all active now, and DSP/room correction (if you want that) is integrated in quite a few of them.

The pro version of ATC's active monitors will be both less expensive and less attractive than the consumer version, but otherwise identical. I wouldn't use a 3 way near field, not enough distance for the drivers to blend unless they're designed to be near field speakers, in which case the tweeter and mid will be vertical with the woofer(s) beside/flanking them like a center channel speaker. ATC's SCM25A and SCM45A would be good (and expensive) examples. Two ways and coaxial speakers are best for near field listening in my experience.

 

I had a setup for a little while with the Asgard 3, Gjallarhorn and 86dB speakers. Got too loud easily and sounded pretty fine! The Asgard and Gjallarhorn stack so very nicely. I mostly listen to classical and early 80s rock.

 

Yes, from everything I read the Gjallarhorn would be great for my setup but I can't help looking at what else there with a little more power.

 

GJ mono blocks?

Hard to find amps in that size/price without going to ClassD, which I don't like the sound of.

I also have a Parasound Zamp that does 80W (iirc). Nice form factor, sounds fine, not as good as the GJ.

 

+1 for the Parasound Zamp. That's what I use on my desktop with KEF Q150 speakers. It's the right balance of nothing noticeably wrong with the sound, but not so distractingly good that I might get lost in the music and get no work done. Dead quiet, and I like the signal sensing auto on/off feature, too. Can be found relatively cheap used, and they're built to be rock solid as they're mostly used in contractor installations.

Also, @HernanC - given your budget and that you said you'd consider an integrated, if you want distractingly good, a few of us have heard and really like the Superscope a210. You can read some impressions here. It's about $700 plus shipping, only available from one seller on eBay (PM me if you want the link). Basically a new old stock of a rebadged Soulnote sa1.0 amp.

 

I had Orchard Starkrimson GaN monos for a little bit while I was on a Magnepan detour and came away impressed. A different breed than the other class D I've tried over the years -- not nearly as dry/sterile, and if you're using an Asgard as a pre, you'll be hard pressed to tell they're D. They're still spatially flatter than tubes or the best A/B, but if you want the power (150w in to 4,) stability (2 ohm friendly,) and tiny size, it would be hard to do better for ~$1K used.

Back to A/B, Cyrus/Mission use half-sized chassis. I auditioned a 100w Cyrus ONE integrated with my LS3/5a and it was pretty good, though not the best match for those somewhat finicky speakers. Taking a quick look, they also have a switchable mono/stereo Power X which gives 100w in stereo. Mission is a related company and has the 65w 778X integrated which could be a solid option.

All that said ... dude, go Gjallarhorn! I loved mine as a solid state and lower temp alternative when I didn't want to burn tube hours on my Audio Note -- a different league but thoroughly enjoyable. With 90dB speakers, I honestly think you'd be fine with 10w in nearfield, but go nuts and get monos for 30w.

 

Yes, that's the cool thing about stereo amps that can also do mono – brilliant marketing by Schiit? – that you can get one and later for overkill get the second. If I saw a deal on a Gjallarhorn I'd jump on it but they are pretty rare used.

 

There's a pair on eBay right now for $570 with free shipping.

 

Just correcting the record on the Zamp. Lots of versions varying from 30W/ch and up to 90W/ch bridged.

 

I am looking for a recommendation for a good Roon ready streamer with analog output. Something that doesn't require a lot of faffing around, so no RPi based options. I *think* I also want something that does the volume control in the analog realm, but digital attenuation that isn't an issue is fine. Bal/se doesn't matter. Also don't need (or want) display screens if it can be avoided. Used is good, and a generation or two old is also fine.

 

Sounds like you want a Roon-ready preamplifier? You already have a power amp and speakers? Or do you want one for a headphone setup?

Budget? I have a Linn Sneaky DS that appears to tick all your boxes but even used those are pricey.

 

I have long been a fan of Cyrus, but not so much now. I have a dead integrated amplifier only a decade or so old, and I cannot get it repaired.

If one is in UK, Cyrus undertake repairs (for a flat fee, iirc-may-be-wrong) but I am not, and am not going to risk carriage/customs. They refuse to co-operate with independent repairers: no spares, no information. So I'm not so keen now. Loved it while it worked; even the headphone-out was worthwhile.

 

Basically. Though I don't need additional inputs. I don't mind them if they are there, but I won't use them.

Probably helpful information. Max $3K used, though I would definitely prefer to keep it under that.

The primary purpose here is that I am working on and testing various speaker amps. So I am looking for a source that is a reliable, decent, and easy to use known quantity. But I definitely don't need an integrated power amp.

 

Since you're looking for roon ready specifically I assume you could just do dsp volume control in roon and use any roon ready streamer, if you're just using this for testing gear and don't care that much about how good it sounds for actual listening the wiim streamer is only like 150. I think finding something with built in analog volume control is the only thing that's gonna strip down the options a lot, I'm not aware of anything that checks all the boxes off my head.

 

Maybe whatever streamer/dac and a nice passive pre like Goldpoint or Khozmo? Would be well within budget and open up a lot of options.

 

I found a used Lumin D2 for a good price. I'll see if that does the trick.