Im sick of my Marantz PM8005 Stereo Integrated Amp, I want to upgrade..

[lovinthehd]

Schiit have their following but their products are nothing particularly special as far as I know performance wise, could be they have better build quality, haven't seen much in the way of complaints fwiw, but perhaps justifies their price. Their cute marketing schtick has been quite successful, tho and they seem to be well reviewed (good marketing again it seems). Many even here in the US are fans from what I read. Their power amps are fairly new but don't see a bench test yet. It might be capable, seems they're using conservative ratings on the 8ohm to show doubling of power into 4ohm....no indication of 2ohm capabilities but you could always ask Schiit.

The pro amp brands I'd consider are primarily QSC and Crown. Check with musical instrument supply stores, often where they are sourced in the US. Maybe you can get someone to ship easier/cheaper, not sure what your choices are in that regard. I see one model of QSC on Amazon.mx

 

[Bernardo Garcia Barros]

both options seems great, im cosidering both and leaving my Marantz just as a pre amp

 

[Kvn_Walker]

thanks, a lot thats an excelente advice..
what would be a good option?
the seller claims that Integra brand is build for last and i have 4 Onkyos and i know its a well made brand, but im not too shure about the sound quality, and that amp is not for demo

In my opinion, long term you would find more happiness with a different pair of speakers.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I almost suggested a pro amp easily capable of low impedance loads but wasn't sure he was ready for such a shocking relevation what with the brands he's considering.....

I was extremely impressed with the Crown XLS1000 I got last week. Right now I'm playing it against dual Outlaw 2200 monoblocks and trying to decide which setup to keep. My Revel speakers don't have that kind of impedance drop though.

 

[PENG]

thats a lot of power for an outstanding price, and they are small enough for international shipping

Those QSC RMX amps are great in terms of $/W but you will hear the fan. According to @Verdinut, their DCA amps are quiet but you have to ask him and probably better to hear them for yourself.

https://www.qsc.com/cinema/products/power-amplifiers/dca-series/dca-1622/

They are most expensive, but the audio specs are impressive.

 

[PENG]

In my opinion, long term you would find more happiness with a different pair of speakers.

I doubt you can find too many speakers that good at that price point. Have you heard any PSB tower speakers, I mean their higher end models?

 

[Kvn_Walker]

I doubt you can find too many speakers that good at that price point. Have you hear any PSB tower speakers, I mean their higher end models?

I'm still hoping one day to come across a pair of Stratus Gold's within driving distance. Those were the ones I was most avidly seeking before I was able to get the F30s for a reasonable price, but no one selling was willing to ship.

Wouldnt mind snagging some Platinum T8's as well someday. Even the S1's had intrigued me but I didn't know they were such a difficult load.

 

[PENG]

I'm still hoping one day to come across a pair of Stratus Gold's within driving distance. Those were the ones I was most avidly seeking before I was able to get the F30s for a reasonable price, but no one selling was willing to ship.

Wouldnt mind snagging some Platinum T8's as well someday. Even the S1's had intrigued me but I didn't know they were such a difficult load.

As far as I know, their higher end models typically have lower than average impedance and the Stratus Gold's would most likely be as difficult a load as the Synchrony One. I suppose we can assume that is their weak spot, but watts and amperes are relatively cheap nowadays.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/psb-stratus-gold-loudspeaker-1997-measurements

 

[Bernardo Garcia Barros]

I doubt you can find too many speakers that good at that price point. Have you hear any PSB tower speakers, I mean their higher end models?

yes
even with the underpowered marantz im so fkn happy with my Synchrony One, thats why i prefer to change everything but the speakers...

i have sonus faber venere 3.0.. not even close..

 

[lovinthehd]

I was extremely impressed with the Crown XLS1000 I got last week. Right now I'm playing it against dual Outlaw 2200 monoblocks and trying to decide which setup to keep. My Revel speakers don't have that kind of impedance drop though.

LOL and I was coming back to mention the Outlaw 2200s. I've been very happy with my four XLS1500s for both mains and subs.

 

[Verdinut]

Those QSC RMX amps are great in terms of $/W but you will hear the fan. According to @Verdinut, their DCA amps are quiet but you have to ask him and probably better to hear them for yourself.

https://www.qsc.com/cinema/products/power-amplifiers/dca-series/dca-1622/

They are most expensive, but the audio specs are impressive.

Should you be interested in purchasing the QSC DCA 1622 amp, here is a link to a South California store that sells it at 20% discount, I believe. Those cinema amps are not sold in pro audio musical instrument shops. Only cinema equipment suppliers and authorized QSC distributors carry them.

https://socalcinetech.com/product/qsc-dca-1622-amplifier/

I am using 4 QSC DCA Series amps in my home theater system and I am sitting at about 6 feet away from them. The fans on the four of them operating simultaneously are rather quiet and not noisier than the fans I am using on top of the Marantz AVR in the same console. I recommend the QSC amps without any reservation. They are as acoustically transparent as any audiophile amp on the market.

My system: https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/my-7-channel-system.111234/

 

[KEW]

Should you be interested in purchasing the QSC DCA 1622 amp, here is a link to a South Carolina store that sells it at 20% discount, I believe. Those cinema amps are not sold in pro audio musical instrument shops. Only cinema equipment suppliers and authorized QSC distributors carry them.

https://socalcinetech.com/product/qsc-dca-1622-amplifier/

South Carolina... Southern California...whatever!

 

[lovinthehd]

South Carolina... Southern California...whatever!

As if most in the US can keep track of Canadian cities/provinces etc. I saw I think Seth Rogen earlier this week saying a lot of Canadians when speaking with Americans about where they come from will name city, province and country to be sure

 

[sterling shoote]

OP, maybe you heard the slogan for V8 Juice, "WOW, I could have had

a V8!" For what you put out on your PSB's, you could have purchased a pair of JBL 4429's for awesome results without all the fuss over amplification. Of course, you must be quite satisfied with the PSB's to entertain the realitively expensive amplification required to drive them.

 

[Bernardo Garcia Barros]

OP, maybe you heard the slogan for V8 Juice, "WOW, I could have hadView attachment 25468View attachment 25468 a V8!" For what you put out on your PSB's, you could have purchased a pair of JBL 4429's for awesome results without all the fuss over amplification. Of course, you must be quite satisfied with the PSB's to entertain the realitively expensive amplification required to drive them.

yep those PSB Synchrony One are quite something.. its like having an exotic car which needs a lot of expensive petrol, but you enjoy it so much even if it makes you poor

 

[Kvn_Walker]

yep those PSB Synchrony One are quite something.. its like having an exotic car which needs a lot of expensive petrol, but you enjoy it so much even if it makes you poor

I hope to have a chance to hear some top-end PSB's someday. Maybe I will have a larger room in my next house and can fit two pairs of large towers.

Anyway, I think as long as you get a high-current amp that is 2 ohm stable your problem will be solved.

 

[PENG]

I hope to have a chance to hear some top-end PSB's someday. Maybe I will have a larger room in my next house and can fit two pairs of large towers.

Anyway, I think as long as you get a high-current amp that is 2 ohm stable your problem will be solved.

A safer way is to use the linked calculator to figure out how much power he needs, by entering 88.3-4.8 = 83.5 dB (to allow for the dip to 2.65 ohms at 73 Hz). The problem with the 2 ohm stable thing is, what exactly "stable" means, is it for 20 milliseconds like the IHF dynamic rating, 1 second or the so called "continuous", i.e. 5 minutes (FTC) ? Also, an amp could be 2 ohm stable but only rated 200 W into 4 ohm "continuous", and that may not be enough for the OP.

Here's one calculator that calculates peak spl for a user specified power:
http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html,

and below is an example of how the OP could use that calculator to calculate how much peak power (base on sine wave) is needed to get THX level (105 dB peak) from 10 ft, based on two speakers.
It shows that if the OP sits at 10 ft from his Sync One, even factoring in two speakers playing the same 73 Hz at the same time, he needs 350 W into 2.63 ohms, that, would be for peak so in theory he only needs 175 average (so called rms) per channel, but then no reserve/headroom is allowed for.

If he can live with say 82 dB average, that is 79 dB average with one speaker making sound, then allowing for 20 dB peaks that do exist in some classical music, a 175 WPC "2 ohm stable" amp can do the job. Very few amps can handle that much power requirement for such low impedance load, unless one (such as NAD and Yamaha) inflicts the IHF dynamic rating that is applicable to short peaks of 20 ms duration.

So under the above conditions, none of the amps the OP listed in his first post can do the job, not even close. As TLSGuy alluded to, such speakers are hard to drive for a lot of amplifiers. If you give them to me though, there would be no issue at all because 75 dB average is loud to me. I could drive them easily with my 14 years old AVR-3805 (incidentally that Denon AVR did pass an 1 ohm test at about 100 W output).

There is one integrated amp that is specified for down to 2 ohms, continuous. I do not believe their specs, though I would be very comfortable to using it for the Synchrony One.

Here's the link to the specs.

https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/type=integrated-amp/model=str-integrated-amplifier/page=specs

 

[Bookmark]

I would hope it would work @ $5000.

Perhaps the cheaper solution is to keep the Marantz, the PSB and employ sub using the high level inputs since the Marantz doesn't appear to have any bass management support.

Hopefully we will hear back from Bernardo after today's demos as to the results.

 

[PENG]

I would hope it would work @ $5000.

Perhaps the cheaper solution is to keep the Marantz, the PSB and employ sub using the high level inputs since the Marantz doesn't appear to have any bass management support.

Hopefully we will hear back from Bernardo after today's demos as to the results.

That would work if he set the crossover to 80 Hz or higher, and be happy with 75 dB average 95 dB peak sitting 10 feet or closer to the speakers.