Amp and DAC for B&W CM8

[trickards]

Hi,

I am in my local dealer tomorrow for some demos with a pair of B&W CM8s. I am planning on using the CM8s (and CMC) in a surround sound setup with my current AV receiver, but also run a stereo amp (out of the pre-outs on my AVR) so I can run pure stereo sources through the speakers too.

There are a couple of amps which look to support an AV direct feature, where you bypass the preamp which would be excellent (wouldn't need ot buy an amp switch, and straight forward for others in the house to use). They are:

Audiolab 8200A

Roksan Kandy K2

I have a budget of about £1250 for the amp and a DAC to go with it and would love some suggestions. Especially opinions on an audiolab/roksan pairing with B&W.

Many thanks.

 

[g777o]

Add the new rotel RA 1570 to your list.

A beast of an amp!

It would be a great match for your cm8s. (Same parent company)

Its a bit more than the other two you have listed, but does include a DAC. It also has the av pass through mode.

 

[trickards]

Thanks for this, great find. I have asked the dealer to get one in for a demo.

Tom

 

[Vladimir]

I bought the new Roksan Kandy K2 BT for my B&W CM1's and I'm very pleased with both the amp and the integrated DAC inside it.

B&W crave power and can be bright on the top end so the Kandy K2 comes to the rescue with its 150W in 8 ohms and silky smooth sound.

Check my initial impressions here http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/roksan-kandy-k2-bt-initial-impressions-review.

Cheers

 

[Jonclare]

This is the combination I am looking for too, but can't demo for a week or two.

 

[giogioloco]

Hello!

This may not be the exact place where i should be posting this but you seem to know your amps and amp connections.

I recently acquired a vintage philips amp and would very much like to connect my computer to it.

There are two problems :

1) there is no differenciating the colours because the rca inputs on the amp are neither red neither white so i don't know wether that is an issue or if i can just plug the rca cable in either.

2) when i connect it into aux, it won't play but when i connect it in phono, it does but the sound is quite crap, it's very noisy and if i dare to turn the volume up, it becomes awful.

So i wanted to know exactly what the best tip for this connection could be. Thankyou very much

 

[Vladimir]

1) there is no differenciating the colours because the rca inputs on the amp are neither red neither white so i don't know wether that is an issue or if i can just plug the rca cable in either.

Red goes on the bottom plug on the amp.

2) when i connect it into aux, it won't play but when i connect it in phono, it does but the sound is quite crap, it's very noisy and if i dare to turn the volume up, it becomes awful.

You are currently with the selected input for phono (turntable, gramophone). Plug your RCA cable in AUX and on the front of the amp select the INPUT SELECTOR to AUX. You can also try option with TAPE or TUNER inputs. Just make sure you also select the adequate selector input on the front of the amp.

:wave: