Should I upgrade my amp for B&W 801N

[DeepEndX]

Currently I'm using Rotel 1090 for my B&W 801N. Should I upgrade to a high end amp such as Mark Levinson, Classe, or McIntosh or keep using the Rotel?

I also got the B&W LCR600S3 for center speaker. Would an upgrade to a HTM a must? Please give any suggestions...

[Nigel_Rav]

Try listening to some Naim amplification. I have NAC282 & NAP250 that I'll be using with the 804S, but the NAC252 & NAP300 would really make your 801s sing. Entirely different league to Rotel IMHO.

In theory, you shouldn't spend more on the speakers than on either the amps or the source - this is the garbage in, garbage out principle...

[DanR]

Can't possibly imagine you being anything but overjoyed at the sound of a Levinson or McIntosh. Rotel is great at its price point, but not in the same league as these two. I don't think Classe is as big a leap. They are unjustifiably pricey to me.

[jericho]

I've heard a classé Ca-M2200 with a pair of new 802D.It sounds great!!

[jlee]

1. Naim - from what I've seen, you either have Naim EVERYTHING, or NAIM nothing... since they use their own "NAIM cables" and connections! This makes Naim highly inflexible with other brands. That being said, I've demoed Naim and it's known for it's IMMEDIACY, TIGHTNESS, and MUSICALITY. Very nice sound indeed... where we live though, the Naim stuff is quite pricey and the inflexibility makes it unattractive long term and for resale.
2. Classe - yes, new amps are overpriced. Old series is great though (CA-201, 301, 401, CAM-350, etc.).
3. 1090 will sound great on 802 or 801 UNTIL you hear something better to see what the 802 and 801 are truly capable of. It will not be garbage in, garbage out... 1090 is not garbage... but at the same time, not in the same league as the better more refined amps. Another brand to consider is McIntosh.

[Fraise]

Currently I'm using Rotel 1090 for my B&W 801N. Should I upgrade to a high end amp such as Mark Levinson, Classe, or McIntosh or keep using the Rotel?

I also got the B&W LCR600S3 for center speaker. Would an upgrade to a HTM a must? Please give any suggestions...

if you're using the 801's with a 600 series center and a rotel amp, what does the rest of your system look like? what pre and source? it sounds highly unbalanced to me.

definately upgrade to something more powerful, but the real question is how much do you plan on spending for these amps? classe, halcro and levinson all make some very nice monoblocks but are also very pricey.

[Nigel_Rav]

1. Naim - from what I've seen, you either have Naim EVERYTHING, or NAIM nothing... since they use their own "NAIM cables" and connections! This makes Naim highly inflexible with other brands. That being said, I've demoed Naim and it's known for it's IMMEDIACY, TIGHTNESS, and MUSICALITY. Very nice sound indeed... where we live though, the Naim stuff is quite pricey and the inflexibility makes it unattractive long term and for resale.
3. 1090 will sound great on 802 or 801 UNTIL you hear something better to see what the 802 and 801 are truly capable of. It will not be garbage in, garbage out... 1090 is not garbage... but at the same time, not in the same league as the better more refined amps. Another brand to consider is McIntosh.

These are good points. However, just for the record, the latest generation of Naim amps (i.e. the ones that hit the market in 2002) have phono as well as DIN connections. Plenty of people use the amps with other brands of CD player for example.

I agree that the 1090 is not garbage - I just meant that speakers cannot improve upon a signal fed to it from further up the chain - just reproduce it. Good as the 1090 may be, it will degrade a signal from a CD player or whatever more so than an amp of 4x the price, as you would expect. No offense meant to Rotel owners.