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July 16, 2007 - 1:04pm
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Power amp to drive Paradigm Reference Studio 100
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I have never head the Paradigm Reference Studio 100's, but have heard the 1080 with B&W's. For the $ the 1080 is not a bad amp $, IMHO. But synergy is important. See if you can trial it with your speakers to see (hear) if you like it.
You might also want to consider the NAD C272 or a pair of the the Outlaw Model 2200 monoblocks. The Outlaws are a great value. But you gotta listen.
I run a Creek 5350se to a pair of studio 60's and I really think it does a great job of driving these speakers. You might want to audition the Creek Destiny for the 100's depending on your budget and/or your room size.
post edited: Sorry I forgot about your budget Ran. I will defer to the NAD 372(?)150wpc, highly rated, and before I purchased the Creek I used an NAD 320BEE to drive the 60's with good results.
I have the Studio 100 v4's, and they are great. I use an older amp, Carver 1.0t. It puts out about 200wpc and sounds very good, better than I expected in fact. Don't know how loud you want to play them, but 125 to 150 should be plenty for most folks. They don't seem to present much difficulty for the amp either. I drove them for a while with a Mac 2505, 50 wpc, and it was a little bit shy sometimes.
NAD goes great with Paradigm. I also love my Rega Brio/7se Mk.III pairing. The Rotel is a good amplifier, although I haven't heard it with Paradigm.
Try these:
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1190827771
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1190676698
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1189879698
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1192315736
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1190670540
Bikepedler
I just hooked up a 5350se to a pair of Paradigm Studio 20 V.4s and the character of the system changed dramatically. The creek sounds slow - almost syrupy. Its clean and articulate with lots of bass but sounds really slow. Did you hear anything like this with your Paradigms
Thanks