Need an amp for B&W XT8 stereo system

[DMX7000]

I'm looking to spend less than $2500 on a stereo amp for the B&W XT8 stereo speakers. I listen mostly to music. Does anyone know of any "match made in heaven" amps for it? Thank you!

[Mig17]

Why not Rotel 1090 pre and Rotel 1090 amps
They are budget stereo amplifier and sound good with many kind of speakers

[htsteve]

DMX7000,

How about a Rotel 1092 (500 wpcX 2)? That way, if you upgrade speakers later, the amp would be set.

Or one of the new 15 series stereo amps. All should power the XT's quite nicely, and be less than your budget.



Hope this helps.

[Tweir]

I would select the RB-1582 solid state class a/b and 200 watts a channel. Great
sound with that speaker. Retail is 1499.00 I think.

Check it out here. http://www.rotel.com/NA/products/Pro...ils.htm?Id=488

[DMX7000]

Thanks a lot for the recommendations. I was actually already looking at the 15 series Rotel Amps so this just confirms my thinking.

I’ve decided to go with the Rotel RB-1552 (Class A/B, 120watt, $899).

I was debating between that and the Rotel RB-1562 (Class D, 100 watts, $799) but it only has a 109 Signal-to-noise ratio compared to 120 S/N ratio for the RB-1552 and the power efficiency of the Class D amp isn’t too important in my configuration.


Now, I just need some speaker wires. Thoughts?

[Mig17]

speaker wires is not important as electrnoics

[kmcheng]

More important than the S/N and power rating specs is whether you like the solid-state sound better than the class D sound. Any decent dealer should be able to set up a comparison test for you. Keep an open mind when you audition.

As for speaker wires, I would go with Monoprice or Bluejeans. The forum owner/operator also makes very good cables with a lot of good reviews from fellow forum members. Beyond these suppliers, I am not sure if this forum is the right place to talk about cables.

[Tweir]

Depending on what you are doing with placement, either the amp and electronics
closer to the speakers I would do audioquest type8 or cv8 in a full range cable
since the xt8's can not be bi-wired. Or if you have the amp further away I would
run either type4 or type8 in bulk. Always have gotten good results with audioquest
and b&w...

[Tweir]

I have tried to like the class d switching amps from rotel and power is great but
I feel like the depth of image is gone and the warmth of the sound is missing. This
is noticed the most with recording with real instruments recorded in live space instead
of electronic music or everything close mic'd and made to recreate an acoustic space.
Solid State all the way for me.

[WI Rotel]

For wires any decent copper multistrand 14 or 12 gauge wire will do. The longer the run the thicker the wire. Thickness is key, the thicker the wire the lower the resistance, it does make a difference particularly with low frequency reproduction. I will always remember a loooong time ago when I swapped the usual 16 ga speaker wire for some fat monsters on my, at the time, new AR speakers. It was like I had gotten a whole different pair with more powerful and more coherent bass
BTW, let us know how it goes I'm sort of the XT fanboy around here: 2 XT4, 4 XT2, 1 XTC and 2 Pv1's. I'm considering "upgrading" my XT4 to XT 8 in the future.
Right now I'm swapping my old cranky carver M1 that I use as the amp for my whole house speaker system (4 pairs) for an RMB 1077 and replacing a pair of the in-wall speakers with BW CCM 818. My Carver has a nasty sutdown feedback loop and blew one of my living room in-wall speakers.
Good luck!

[Hdale85]

If you will I'd honestly suggest trying out Emotiva's amps. They have a 30 day money back guarantee so if you don't like it just send it back. You can get their flagship XPA-1 mono blocks for 1500 or so which is well within your budget and I honestly think the mentioned Rotels would have a hard time touching those. Just a thought. There have been quite a few people using Emotiva with some B&W's some even with the 800 series.