New Amp for B&W 601 & Poss Sub?

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Hi there, me & my dad have been mad about hi-fi seperates since I was little, I bought some 2nd hand B&W 601s for my first system recently, I was wondering what was a good first amp to put with these as I want to take full advantage of the bi-wiring option, however I have also been given a sub... so is there an amp out there (without going into the realms of home cinema) with bi-wiring & a sub out.. or furthermore if it isn't worth having the sub at all?... one I have found so far are Yamaha AS500, is this any good as a decent starter?

Sorry for long message,

Thanks in advance

Sam

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the fourms Sam

The B&W 601's are good little speakers. Having owned them myself and still having a pair of the 602 S2's in my loft; I'd stick to single wiring them as they sound better that way. Bi-amping gets the best out of them but bi-wiring them, to me, just made them a little confused at times

With regards to 1st amp; do you have a budget in mind; what music do you generally listen to and what will be your source (CD player, iTunes via a DAC etc...)?

In regards to the sub; is it a passive sub or an active sub?

Any decent Arcam, NAD, Musical Fidelity and Rotel amp will drive the speakers well.

Personally my money would be on good 2nd hand amps (more bang for your buck) such as the NAD C352 (PD version) or the C355BEE although the C320BEE would be a superb amp as well; Arcam Alpha 9 or 10 & the Musical Fidelity XA100 integrated amps. However, if you;re after brand new then the Yamaha AS500, NAD C326BEE, Rotel RA04SE & Marantz PM6003 amps should be considered

 

[Anonymous]

thankyou! & thanks for the fast response!

ok that's great I still have the original jumpers on them anyway, I usually listen to rock but have a wide varied taste, I am a fan of bass hence the sub, it is an active & I know there is an option to wire the speakers in on the back of the sub, however is this a bit of a no-go? I am going to get a cd player in the near future, possibly with the amp, however have an old denon one at the moment & as long as there is a line in I can use itunes with it, I want to spend around 300ish and definatly ok with buying second hand.

thanks again

sam

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Sam

In that case my money would be on a NAD C320BEE integrated amp and have a look for an Arcam Alpha 7SE or 8SE CD player. You should be able to get these both for well under £300. The rest can go on speaker stands, speaker cable and interconnects

With regards to the sub; itll work fine in the system