Partnering Equipment

[JMac]

This is one area that to me at least (and I suspect many others) seems like something of a black art. How exactly do you narrow down the choices when determining what might work well togeter? I accept that auditioning is obviously very helpful but how do you establish what speakers should work well with what amp and vice versa? Do people base a lot of it on reviews or are there brands that work better together than others, and if so, how do we establish that?

For example, my system currently consists of Tannoy DC6SE, 2x Musical Fidelity M1 PWR running as mono amps and an M1 SDAC as dac and pre amp. I'm contemplating auditioning a Sugdan Masterclass in the new year as a lot of people have said that this would do wonders for the Tannoys but I'm conscious that a £4k amp paired with £700 speakers is a bit of a mismatch in quality and so the Tannoys would probably only last a year or so. But, how do I then set about working out what speakers I should test next with that amp if I were to get it?

 

[MickyBlue]

i found having a good repour with your dealer is essential, the experience they offer is priceless.

 

[ID.]

i found having a good repour with your dealer is essential, the experience they offer is priceless.

Or even a good rapport. Although I am partial to a good re-pour of a decent wine.

 

[MickyBlue]

*dash1* i don't know why i bother

 

[CnoEvil]

There is no real shortcut to this. It comes down to two things (imo):

1. Fully understanding the sound you are after and how to achieve it...which requires a lot of listening to altenatives.

2. Experience - Going out there and trying lots of alternatives (helped by in depth research).

To get the right system (for you) is a balancing act. The things that are important are:

- The genres of music that you listen to and how you like them presented. A lot of people think that they will like a very detailed and analytical sound, only to find it ultimately fatiguing.

- Make sure you compare Valves vs Solid State, as well as Class A, B, AB and D (and AD)

- Experiment with how to allocate your budget ie. Expensive amp + cheap speakers; or roughly equal on each....though don't underestimate the importance of the Source (which if digital and carefully chosen can eat up less of the budget).

- The choice of amp can effect which speakers you have to look at eg. Valves usually need sensitive ones; and that can also work the other way round as well, with hard to drive speakers needing decent power.

FWIW. I think the IA-4 is a great place to start, but it is also imperative to check what else you could get for the money, possibly from the likes of Pathos, Icon Audio, Devialet and Electro.

We are here to help with suggestions (to demo), which we can try to make relevant once we understand what you are trying to achieve. You then should be guided by what you like, not what you are told is best (if the two differ).

 

[JMac]

All of my music is digital (either Tidal, Spotify or FLAC stored on my home server) which helps to keep the spend down as I dont need to worry about CD players etc.

Where it gets complicated is that I listen to quite a wide range of electronic based music (house, techno, etc) and it can have both fast paced complicated mid bass sections, detailed vocals and very low frequencies thrown in the mix. Therefore the amp and speakers need to be able to handle the pace and complication as well as frequency ranges.

To add problems to the mix, the room I use is narrow and long which means I'm limited as to how wide I can space the speakers apart from each other (distance from a back wall is okay but the side walls start to encrouch). Therefore it would be argued that a good floor stander with a decent sized driver would fit the bill e.g. Tannoy Definition DC8 (I like the tannoy soundstage) backed by an amp with enough clout to control the cone. But as I sit approx 8 feet from the speakers, they're probably going to be wasted due to the room constraints and have the sound form behind where I sit.

This suggests stand mounts are the way to go, possibly with sub reinforcement, but some people have suggested I try the Event Opals active monitors as they're highly rated but auditioning is difficult.