[gus6464]

I recently put together a 2ch system in my home office consisting of Rega Planar 2, Epos ELS-3, Rolls Bellari vp-129, pioneer dvd player, sony AVR. Everything other than the Bellari I got used either from craigslist (rega, epos) or already had in storage (dvd player, sony AVR). Now when the tax man sent me my money I was planning on dropping over $1000 on some new separates (tube preamp, ss amp). Thing is my old sony avr has been doing such a good job at powering the 4ohm epos (my brand new yamaha avr gets hotter than the sony running the speakers) that now I am wondering if I should spend the money on speakers instead. I was planning on upgrading the speakers next year as I had to save more money but with the sony doing such a good job I am wondering if my system would get a much greater improvement with new speakers right away. The sony is a 6 year old 5.1 receiver that puts out about 120w with 2 channels driven.

The thing is I have some placement requirements and I don't know if the sapphire's would suffer because of it. The room is small and somewhat rectangular and listening position is only 5ft away max so I am not needing super high volume levels. I was leaning on Mark and Daniel Ruby but I hear they are extremely hard to drive and have some QC problems. They would go right where the Epos are in this picture. They are right in front of the curtain and there is maybe 1-3in of space between the curtain and speakers.



What do you guys think? Am I crazy trying to power the Sapphire's with my old receiver?

[Mike Dzurko]

I might be slightly biased, but I'll present some facts.  The fact is, the Sapphire XLs are a very easy amplifier load.  Certainly they will benefit as the quality of electronics in front of them goes up. But, they can be easily driven by just about anything. During development we ran them hard on a 15 year old $120 30w/pc rec, SET amps, 300 watt mono blocks . . . . you name it. I even hooked them up to a boom box. 

One time a very knowledgable and experiences manufacturer's rep was telling me that there was no way their 6 watt SET would even play through the XLs. He said it wasn't possible for a small monitor like these with a crossover. I should have bet him cash, it worked fine!  Your receiver will do just fine, you can look forward to greater refinement down the road when you upgrade electronics.

They are rear ported so you will want them a little way out from the rear wall, the curtains are okay. From your photo, looked like they'd be far enough out.   

[griller]

You're only crazy if you don't try them. They are that good.  A friend had about the same question so we hooked up his old Onkyo reciever to my new XLs. Flash, didn't sound quite as good as my Prima Luna II, but still sounded great. He's ordering.  Did you happen to read the Stereomojo writeup on the Mark and Daniels? That sure was an eye opener.

[gus6464]

You're only crazy if you don't try them. They are that good.  A friend had about the same question so we hooked up his old Onkyo reciever to my new XLs. Flash, didn't sound quite as good as my Prima Luna II, but still sounded great. He's ordering.  Did you happen to read the Stereomojo writeup on the Mark and Daniels? That sure was an eye opener.

Yeah that was exactly why I started to second guess the Ruby. The 6moons review was what really created my interest in them but in their review they made it look like anything with 100w was enough. I would just rather spend $1500 on speakers than on electronics.

[ajayrav]

Mike Dzurko is right on the money with his comment.  I've run the XLs with Marantz receivers from middle-of-the-road to just below top-of-the-line.  With the middle level SR6200 the XLs sounded great.  Each upgrade brought with it an increase in refinement, timbre and soundstage.  Using Arcam front-end and amplification just serves to gild the already golden lily.  I am in sonic heaven......

Also, I highly recommend the dedicated XL stands, despite the rather steep price tag.  It made a dramatic difference in my setup.

Ajay