what amp etc work best & bang for your buck for cm9 & 684 b&w

[reese]

ive just picked up some cm9 & a pair of 684 has any one got ideas for a pretty good amp set up etc preamps with out blowing a stupid amount of money but bang for ya buck type of thing??
i was looking at a rotel rb1080 for the 200 watt cm9 & a bit smaller one for the 684 being 150watts but the pass lab x250,5 looks good as a big amp a bit dear if you get my price range but ive not herd any of these so ime going out to hi fi shop taking my speakers with me to plug them in to some of there best amps & work down from there to see what sound i like & hope its the cheaper one its for my work shop its about 20 x 20 metre square to fill with tilt slap concrete walls not the best environment to sort out it will be better if you gals & guys can point me in the right direction p.s one of the other caps on the b&w speaker site said perhaps a emotiva ime looking into that pressnetly aswell ime not sure if its got a 240 volt operating system thow for new zealand

[bigburner]

Hi reese,

I'm a previous owner of an RB-1080 and a current owner of an Emotiva XPA-2. They are both worthy amps. The XPA-2 has a bit more power, which suits my 803Ds more. It is largely similar to the Rotel in all other respects. If loud music is your thing then I'd go for the XPA-2 as the extra headroom will make for a more relaxed listening experience.

My preamp is a Rotel RC-1082, which must be relatively inexpensive now as it's 3 years old. It's a very acceptable preamp that gives me no reason to change. It has tone controls, which are useful if your speakers lean towards the bright side and/or you listen to a wide variety of music that might include mp3's.

Nigel.