Location: London/Durham
Posts: 6,883
I'm Lawrence.
Location: East Riding of Yorkshire
Posts: 113
I'm Shaun.
Good post
From what I can gather from all the responses it sounds like all I'm gonna get from monoblocks and a pre is the extra cost of the extra cables needed I had denon monblocks a few years ago and wasn't blown away and it was a faf to get a pre to mate with them for synergy
I have a pair of Cyrus Mono Xs and must agree that when I had some KEF LS50s relatively tough to drive I heard the benefit compared to a Cyrus integrated however now I use Klipsch Quartets or Tannoy Berkeleys I’m certain I don’t really benefit much from having 150 -1500 watts on tap for each speaker
A widower finding solace in music
I did say the cost/benefit ratio would be low.
In my case, the monoblocks are located behind each speaker, which being electrostatic need a mains supply. When I had a dedicated ring main installed solely for my audio setup, there was a double socket for the speaker and amp on each side, so the equipment mains cabling is short. The amps are connected back to the preamp and sources, near my listening position, using balanced line cables, which was also installed along with the ring main, so under the floorboards and carpet and thus out of sight.
Barry
I used to many years ago run a pr. Cyrus monoblocks but found no useful advantage over a stereo power amp. I currently run a pre/power combo which sounds significantly better than any integrated I’ve heard.
SOURCE:OPPO UDP-205 BluRay, SkyQ, Technics SL1210M5G/HexMat Eclipse/MN Bearing/Origin Live Gravity One puck/Isonoes with Boots/Jelco TK-850S Tonearm/Hana Umami Blue, PS Audio Stellar Phonostage. I also have an AT-OC9XSH as a spare cartridge.
AMPLIFIER: Bryston BR-20 Pre/DAC/Streamer & Bryston 4B3 Power Amplifier
SPEAKERS: Spendor D7 on Iso-Acoustics Gaia III’s
HEADPHONES: OPPO PM-1 with Atlas Zeno cable, B&W Pi7 S2 and B&W C5 v2.
CABLES: Analogue: Speaker Atlas Mavros Grun. Interconnect - Atlas Mavros XLR x3, MCRU Silver Tonearm cable
Digital:Audioquest Carbon Ethernet x 4, Audioquest Carbon digital, English Electric 8Switch, Chord Optichord, Atlas Optical.
Mains: PS Audio Perfectwave AC-05 x 5, Isol-8 Powerline Extreme with Quantum Science yellow fuse on input cable, Sounds Fantastic 6way Mains Blocks.
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Location: East Riding of Yorkshire
Posts: 113
I'm Shaun.