Greetings from sunny Dublin!
As someone who has spent many a late night pouring over the posts in this circle, no doubt to the chagrin of my gf, let me first say thanks to everyone for all the informative and positive discussion that goes on here. And particular kudos to James for actively sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm, being so receptive to input and even criticism, and generally setting an amazing standard of customer care. These factors have created what I believe to be a fantastic and valuable resource and community. Keep up the good work.
I'm about to pick some MB2-p's, which represents a bit of a step up from my current FB1+, TB2+ and arcam avr280 setup, and leads me to seek your advice on, of course, "which amps???" to get the best out of these behemoths. While demoing/home testing would provide the obvious answer, unfortunately the opportunities for that here in dublin are pretty limited.
And all my digging around to-date would point to a bryston/PMC or arcam/bryston/pmc setup. So, with that in mind:
- what are people's experiences/views on passive bi or tri-amping pmc's with brystons? The views here have been somewhat mixed. Eg. a 28B would be better than a vertical 14B biamp, whereas tri-amping with a 4b and 2 3b's is better than single 7Bs. I realise it's ultimately subjective. One advantage i guess for slowly going the multi-amp route is that it allows for a gradual progression of acquisitions and improvements than a big one-off hit on the wallet (and from the gf!). Eg 1 8B for stereo duty initially then another down the track for triamping (though not sure if bridging the 8B for stereo on MB2's is really feasible - thoughts?). I guess I need to know how much headroom I should have for each driver to really make em shine and how that differs from the headroom needed for same by single-amping;
- if passive tri-amp, how would this work? A Y+1 IC or splitter box etc;
- if single, I'm guessing I should probably go 7B's and up?; and
- anyone out my way got some brystons gathering dust they feel like setting free?
The 2nd hand market in the UK looks a bit dry atm.
I'll definitely try to demo, but any advice would be mucho appreciated.
Apols for rambling and a big thumbs-up to those have perservered.
Cheers
Adrian