Marantz Pearl Lite for LS50, or..


Hi everybody,

I just bought the KEF LS50, and currently in the looking for an amp.
My room is not very big, roughly 15m2, and I'm initially looking at Roksan Kandy K2, but currently there is one seller in my local forum is selling his few months old Marantz Pearl Lite, so I've been thinking about it.

Does anyone know whether this pairing will work in my room?

Also, as I'm totally new in this thing, will a pure Class A tube amp with 18 Watt sufficient for my room?

Any other recommendation is also appreciated.

Before I forget, my budget is roughly at $1500, and I listen to most type of music, especially progressive rock, jazz, metal, bossanova, etc.

Thanks in advance.
butt
Hi everybody,

Just bought the Pearl Lite and after pairing it with my LS50, I am very much LOVING it!!
I've demoed the LS50 for quite some time with different amp at hifi shop, but I must say after pairing it with the Pearl, it seems like the speaker performance is better.

Thanks to everyone that helps me on deciding to buy the Pearl, I'm totally satisfied with my decision.

Cheers!
Butt, thanks for your take on the pairing of the KEF LS50 and the Marantz as I'm considering a move to a different speaker and the KEF R900 or R700 is on my radar. From what I can recall from the last Newport Audio show, the KEFs sounded really nice.

All the best,
Nonoise
"Also, as I'm totally new in this thing, will a pure Class A tube amp with 18 Watt sufficient for my room?"

Good quality small speakers with extended bass, like these KEFs, tend to have very low efficiency and all like power and current, the more the merrier, for best performance. 18 watts is minimal to drive most any speakers except those that are upper echelon in regards to efficiency. High efficiency speakers with good bass extension will tend to be larger. That's basically how it always works based on teh laws of physics.

I've heard teh KEFs off my 180 w/ch and 500w/ch amps. THey sounded excellent with the 500 watts in my smaller 12X12 sunroom. They did not impress at all off 180w/ch in my larger family room area.

So I would not expect much out of the KEFs with 18 watts no matter how they are boiled.
Marantz PM-KI Pearl Lite is one hell of a good amplifier. I believe also value of new one is worth its price. I have to say that I had 5 times more expensive amps at home on trial and at the end I opted for this fine Marantz PM-KI Pearl Lite amplifier. Whatever Marantz did it did excellent and this gear is producing music. Here is my review that I did when I bought it and a revisit of review after almost a year of living with it. Click.

best, d.
Hi d,

I've read that even before I'm buying the Pearl Lite, and just to let you know that the review is one of the driving factor for me to buy the Pearl Lite.. :)

Thanks and best regards.
-butt