New speakers for my Rotel RA-12

[Cslt30p]

Hello experts,

i have been considering speakers for my Ampli Rotel RA-12, my room w square arround 15m2, with budget max 1300 usd.

some of them:

Dynaudio DM 2/6 or 2/7

B&W: 685 S2, 684 S2 or 683 S2

i do like standfloor 683 S2, but not sure my ra-12 is enough power to drive the speaker?

please advise and have any commed for my new speaker.

thanks,

 

[Happy_Listener]

The RA-12 puts out 145 watts into a 4 ohm load and that should be OK to drive the B&W 683 S2's with as long as you don't like to listen at ear bleeding levels with heavy bass tracks. The B&W 683's are rated at 89db and over much of the frequency range is 6-8 ohms. But it does dip down to 3 ohms at lower frequencies. I have not seen a spec for the Rotel RA-12 below 4 ohms. The amp should drive them fine but it may not be an ideal partner. The smaller 684's and 685's won't really be any easier to drive so you might as well go for the big ones if you decide on B&W. Like I said as long as you don't listen to your music super loud then you should be OK. I drove the 683's in a showroom once, even loudly, with an Arcam A19 and had no problems doing so. The Arcam is not more powerful than your RA-12 is.

The larger Rotel RA-1570 would have been an ideal match as it is rated at 250 watts into 4 ohms, and with suffcient headroom of 630w into 2 ohms and whopping 970 watts into 1 ohms under short burst dynamic conditions. But of course it costs more money.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Rotels usually drive B&Ws very well, and the fact that floorstanders are generally more efficient than standmounts, you'll have no problems with something like the 683s.

 

[ID.]

I think it should work well with the new 683s2.

 

[Cslt30p]

Thanks experts so much for advices and commend, after going to the shop to audition, I decided to focus on B&W 684 S2 due to my budget limited 800 usd for speakers but I do like a floorstander...

actually I am not sure between 685 S2 and 684 S2 for my hi-fi.
now i have been using couple Rotel, RA-12 and RCD-12 and my room size: 15 square metter.

Please have commend and advices more for me

Thanks so much.

 

[Cslt30p]

Hi experts,

it seems B&W 6 series (S2) is not good pair with my ampli RA-12 (I did bring my ampli to the shop to have audition) and I recorgnized that B&W CM Series is much better than 6 series (I tried to pair with CM1 and CM1 S2), with Dynaudio DM2/7 that is better than 685s2.

I tried to looking for used ones: CM7, CM8 or CM9 or Dynaudio excite x16 to pair with my RA-12

please have any commend or suggession for my matching...

Thanks so much.

 

[Happy_Listener]

Out of all the speakers you listened to which ones did you like the best and why?

You said you did like the B&W 6 Series speakers. What did you not like about them?

Understanding your likes and dislikes in sound will better help others here give you advice on speaker matching.