upgrade advice for budget-minded beginner

Ethan:

As a side note, I have been using the Prima Luna Prologue 5 (power amp @ 36 wpc @ 8 ohms) with Acoustic Research 302 speakers. The AR's are a 3 way, 10" woofer; acoustic suspension design speaker and have an sensitivity rating of 85db's @ 8 ohms. In my living room which measures 25 X 15 X 8.5, the Prima Luna drives the AR's pretty loud without distorting. And granted my perception of loud may be different than your perception (comes from living in an apartment house).

I believe that your B&W's check in at 88 or 89db's. Doubling the sound output equates to 3db's, so your B&W's will play louder than my AR's with the same power (give or take). So, you should be OK with a 40 wpc tube amp. You will often hear that tube watts are different than solid state watts (which is not intuitive by any means), but in practice it does seem that a 40 wpc tube amp plays louder than a 40 wpc solid state amp.

Admittedly I am not a big fan of most B&W's, but I always liked the 600 series. If you do go with tubes, perhaps consider pairing them with high efficiency; no crossover speakers. A speaker like the Omega Super 3 , which lists for $540 pairs nicely with tube amps. There is not a lot of bass, but everything else is very musical and dynamic.

Regards, Rich

Ethan--

The Onix is not cheap, Chinese crap, at least not any more so than the dozens of other well regarded companies that have their manufacturing done overseas. Onix used to be a very well regarded British outfit, and made some really great gear, including the A60 and an almost legendary tuner. I believe the company went bankrupt, and the name and product designs were later purchased by av123. Obviously, the A60 and A120 still exist, but the other products are new designs by various people. The tube integrateds are actually manufacture and designed in Australia by Melody (the solid state integrateds are, I believe, still made in China), and I can't tell you about the speakers. However, if build quality is your concern, I really don't think you have anything to worry about. I've seen and heard a few Onix pieces, and they are great bargains, simple as that.

On a final note, cables will definitely make a difference, particularly when you upgrade your components as you are planning to do. It would be a shame to get great performing products, only to limit them by using inferior cables! There are, again, quite a few sources for excellent, budget cables. Signal Cables are available here for very reasonable prices, and Paul Speltz's Anti-Cables seem to be getting very favorable reviews. You could wire your entire system for less than $100 from these two sources.

Actually, one more final note... I have no affiliation with the above products and/or vendors. I've been a budget audiophile for several years now, and just passing on some of my positive experiences with these products.

Good luck, Ethan, and happy listening.

-Eric

The Onix SP3 is cheap and Chinese, but it is far from being crap. I've had this amp for a week now and this unit with the Onix Reference 1 LE monitor speakers and Onix XCD-88 CD player could hold its own to a Conrad Johnson CAV-50, Arcam CD73 and Joseph Audio Reference monitor system that I considered buying. I'm glad I saved my $4,000 and went with the Onix system. It looks better and offers better pace, rhythym and timing than the C-J integrated (which I would still be happy to own if I didn't own the Onix). Also, the Onix SP3 allows me to upgrade the power cord and I can tube roll and put in EL34 power tubes (a la the C-J Cav-50) if I want that romantic, lush tube character.

I'm using my cash surplus for other goodies like a DAC and Mac Mini for a PC music source.