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the best amps for bass, best for the rest?

hullo fellow beardies!

i'm building a system that requires two power amps, one for the main speakers and one for the subwoofers.

the speakers are the Nola Baby Grand Reference, combined with the two seven foot bass towers from the Nola Grand Reference, c/w their electronic crossovers.

so one power amp will drive the baby grands, while the other the sub towers (coming in below 40hz)

which would be your nominations for best amps for bass, and best amps for everything except bass?

the obvious choice is to use valve power amps for the babies, and solid state amps for the subs.
i lean towards monoblocks.

current leading contenders are a new vtl 7.5 pre with 450 monos for the babies and a used pair of krell750mcx monos for the bass.

another option is to mate a used boulder 2010 with the vtl 450's and krell 750's.

a rather more expensive option is the boulder 2010, a used boulder 2060 and then either a second 2060 or another amp to complement the boulders. the 2060 could either run babies or subs, do you guys have any opinions?
or the same model amp runs all frequencies (2 x 2060)
or alternatively something completely different...?

i will choose the power amps first then match with an appropriate pre-amp.

my room is 7m x 5.25m x 2.4m high, with a concrete floor. i prefer electronic dance music (drum and bass, hard / deep / banging house and trance), dubstep and reggae / dub.
i dj roots, rockers and dub, was part of an illegal sound system for a decade hosting regular parties and an annual festival, along with dub nights.
i reside in the uk (scotland) and have no neighbours to worry about
infinitelybaffled
infinitelybaffled OP
20 posts
 
and rcprince i am deffo with you on the treble, i can live with a certain roll-off at the top end.
but i value the sub20hz region too highly to ignore it; that's where the fear factor comes in, and my preferred musical style has plenty of incursions into the sub-bass
infinitelybaffled OP
20 posts
 
george your 'not short of a buck' observation requires an answer...my income isn't high, equivalent to about $40k pa.
the last few years i have been living a hermit's lifestyle and spending exactly half of my income on my system, possible on account of a lack of kids and living on a smallholding, so growing lots of essentials.
and in the interest of humility, i will confess i have been suffering under a driving ban for a while, so all the money i would usually be converting to co2 has been rescued for the sake of mankind. or hifi.
no, that's definitely hifi
infinitelybaffled OP
20 posts
 
i will let you guys be the judge of whether there is significant information sub-25hz...this is my reference tune for bass; 'freak' by fluke
it sounds to me like two titans throwing lightning bolts at each other across a stormy sky:

http://youtu.be/qA1m2dIQmhI

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
4,966 posts
 
06-15-14: Infinitelybaffled
George-lofi i hear what you are saying about OTL valve amps. my big concern there is that the baby grands aren't the most efficient and i enjoy full-bodied sounds at high spl's, so fear they will lack the power i need for bass-orientated music.
i have never heard any of pass labs' offerings....would the x350.8 compare well with the boulder 2060?
i am inclined to let the boulder handle the bass, and drive the baby grands with valves

thank you again for all your helpful inputs

Yes the only reason I mentioned the OTL's is because you have some fine tweeters that extend to 100khz. And the only tubes to make full use of this extened frquency would be OTL's, but yes there would be a ? on their abilty to drive them to huge volume.
That's why I made mention of the Pass Labs XA250.8, as these will drive it and make use of your extended frequency tweeters and because of the class A should be just as good through the mids as well.

As for the bass, yes the Boulder should do the job as well.

Cheers George
infinitelybaffled OP
20 posts
 
i've made offers on both Wavac and VAC pre-power combos to work alongside the boulder
(despite my better half assuring me this is a dreadful time to try and close a deal. something to do with mercury going retrograde apparently)
i'm waiting to see if either are accepted. if they are i will come back here and update. i will have plenty of time...it will take me 30-40 months to save the money...

a massive thank you to all who have posted. it's been highly informative reading your replies
gav
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