any B&W N802 owners out there?

if so, curious to know what amps you're using to drive them.. I'm using 100w Michell Alecto monos, which are almost valve-y and sound fabulous at low volumes. I've heard them with a chunky Meriian power amp which held the bass rock solid up to higher volumes, although wasn't as subtle and delicate as my Alectos. Having scanned round the web and seen people using 300 watters (Krells, Chords et al), I'm wondering what a muscle amp might give me...

 

Midlife, I heard a pair of 802's powered by both a pair of Levinson 33H's and a TACT Millenium a few years back.

The 33H's were real hi-fi and sucked the life out of the music but had a power handling I could only describe as siesmic.
The TACT on the other hand just got on with the job and was very fluid and tuneful with great bass weight :music:.

I run my 703's with a TACT S2150 and it's a good balance of clean and clear with bags of thwack and PRaT.

With the 802's, I think it's more about the nature of the amp than the speakers as they are very neutral.

What are the stats for your Michell's ?

 

These are the specs below. The reviews when they came out were all very positive about the openness, soundstaging and transparency but one commented that timing could be better. There's no question that they can drive the B&Ws very well in most circumstances; indeed I sometimes wponder about buying another pair secondhand to biamp with - I guess as a recent acquirer of the speakers I'm just curious to see what they can really do given even better amplification..


SPECIFICATIONS
- High power in difficult impedances: 128W in 8 Ohms, 196W in 4 Ohms.
- Unconditionally stable. Minimum advised impedance: 3 Ohms.
- Very large power supply: 750VA per channel.
- Separate stabilised power supplies for the gain and driver stages.
- Wide bandwidth: 0.3Hz - 285kHz (-3dB points).
- DC-coupled, DC-servoed (offset < 10mV).
- Ultra-short signal paths.
- Sensitivity: 750mV in for 33V out (eq.128W ref. 8 Ohms)
- Input impedance: 47kOhms
- Dimensions: 318 x 360 x 198 mm (W x D x H)
- Mass: 11 kg
- Compact black acrylic housing, gold top as an option.

 

ONly a few things stood out in the specs (for me, as others will know better).

I was of the opinion that most highly regarded amps doubled in power output as the resitance halved. This, I believe, has a large affect on reproducing the dynamics of music.
The Nautilus speakers have always been regarded as b*stards to drive when the volume goes up.
Althought the impedance rating of 3 Ohms is about standard (if not better ) but the 802's may require that extra 'Ohms worth' to be fully driven.
750VA would seem middle of road for a good power/integrated but should be more than sufficient for these purposes. More a case of "What you do with it" than "How much have you got ?"

Another pair may be overkill but if you like 'em, and can afford it, why not ?

However, how long have you had the 802's ?
They take months to break in !

Maybe just me but they seem a little light weight for power amps . OK, they're monoblocks but.......
Possibly the use of acrylic and a smaller transformer .

For me, from the specs, I think your amps should be doing a good job but there is room for increased power-handling. Whether you need this (Room size, listening levels) is entirely up to you and an increase in power doesn't always mean an increase in quality.

Seperate mains spur ?

 

Stick with the Alectos, they are fine amps.

 

The actual effect of doubling in power is the regulation of the psu.

This is due to having a large mains transformer, and diodes and capacitors that have a low resistance, as when the ouput stage sucks a lot of current, voltage is lost in the resistances of the psu.

so a big tx, means lower resistance and a bigger core to pass more current without getting saturated.

Its not really to do with dynamics as I understand it, I think of dynamics as an amp being expressive in its microdetailing, and some big ones are not. If you mean slam, possibly, doubling power into 4 ohms means that it can supply the extra current, as the voltage is fixed, so the current doubles as the load halves, if teh current cannot be supplied, power is less, BASS is likely softer, however I cannot confirm this, and the output stage will distort more.

I would totally ignore specs and mag words should be treated with caution for 2 reasons, 1 for bias due to advertising, and 2 your individual ear and taste may be different to the reviewers,
and judge on simply do you like it yourself

I think they would look VILE with gold tops!

bipamping would not help, as you will be driving tweeters with 130 watts,where you really need it in the bass...if you do change I would suggest at least 200, 250 or 300 watts....Musical fidelity?