buddyev

Way to go. Match it with a nice valve pre - brilliant.

That Delta 90 is a nice amp and from a period when Arcam made great amps and terrific cdps. I had one on my B&w cdm7 for years. I’d live with it on the PMCs for a while - I suspect it will do a decent job.

Great score, Al. Looks like you’ll be spending a lot of time in bed this Easter!

What kind of floor? Do you think you have a specific problem or are you just fiddling with things like I am? I think the bunnings blocks are pretty good but they do still transmit quite a bit of vibration/resonance into my floor. Hence I’m going to add some 6 mm sorbothane feet to see what happens.

I’ve gone for simple. I heard no benefit from various combos of spikes, boards, blocks etc. I’ve now removed the spikes and just put the Bunnings blocks under the stands. The blocks are quite dense so, to some extent, are still coupling to the floor - but it was a cheap experiment and certainly an improvement. I just got some 10mm sorbothane and will add that to the rubber footers - should be effective isolation. I’m completely sold on benefits of isolating my B&Ws from my wooden floors - seems to work best. But I’m spike/coupling my Proacs to a concrete floor in my other system. As always, it’s horse for courses.

The 805s weren’t a disaster with the Topaz - in fact they sounded quite nice and spacious - but it’s really not the best match. But all Earle’s amps are custom made so he will do 4 ohm taps. Worth having a chat with him about a Tempest. It is irritating that lot of speaker manufactures quote impedance of their speakers as 8 ohms and don’t mention drops to 3 and 4 ohms. It’s very misleading. Reviews also often don’t help and fail to provide these measurements. Stereophile are one of the few mags that do.

I used a Weston Topaz KT 120 with my 805d3s for a while. Its a lovely amp with more efficient speakers. While it has decent grunt - 45 watts class a - it didn’t really bring the best out of the B&Ws. My Elektra pre/power combo - tube pre / 250 watt ss power is an entirely different proposition and a better match for these speakers in every respect. I suspect a Weston Tempest - 70 watts - would work well but, as has been mentioned, it’s not an off-the-shelf item.

Thanks Mick - one of those would be perfect.

I’m looking to improve on the sound quality of an old Dick Smith tv without spending much money. I have some bookshelf speakers but need a cheapie integrated amp and a dac. Alternatively are there any amp/ dac combos I should look at? Looking at used - under $300 but flexible. Nad 3020 digital amp ? Suggestions?

Yep, that’s the way to go.

How have you got your speakers wired? It doesn’t sound like bi-wiring. i assume you have 2 wires from amp to each speaker - not 4 - and then jumpers? if so it should be wired like this:

A dedicated CD player will almost certainly be better than a cheap bluray. Another option, probably as good: Do you currently have a bluray player? If you do, you could simply add a separate dac and use the bluray as a transport. Very reasonable dacs can be had used for well under $500.

I wouldn’t use those Bunnings rubber blocks for light bookshelf speakers on cabinet - they’re very dense and likely to transmit vibes. I think they’re quite effective under equipment racks and heavier speakers - I use them - but not for lighter stuff. I’d go for 10 mm sorbothane sheet - 100 x 100 mm about $25 on ebay. Cut it into 4 small squares under each speaker. I bought some recently. on ebay - philstore - I think. https://www.stopvibration.com.au/product/sorbothane-10100100mm-heavy-duty-machine-pads-3966-inch-2/

I’d be wary of the Kef LS 50 with the Arcam. They need a bit of grunt - 85 dB and impedance drops to 3 ohms. I’d go for something a little more efficient.

Even worse - a selective apostate with a foot in both camps.