Power amp with superb bass control and input gain adjustments?

Hi folks.

I'm going to be looking at the possibility of bi-amping my Audiophysic Avanti IIIs, which I am currently driving with an 8wpc push-pull vale amp. I suspect I can get a tad more control by bi-amping, and I'm thinking good solid state. I have dual RCA outputs from my pre, so I need an amp that either matches the Minimax power amp's gain, or has adjustment.

Luckily for me, the LF inputs on my Avantis are for the four bass drivers per speaker only - the HF does treble and the two midranges.

I've a chance to hear an Electrocomaniet 180 amp later this week, but what else should I be listening to? As this amp is going to be driving only the low stuff, I'm not looking to spend too much - a few hundred quid, depending on what that gets.

Any recs?

Any suggestions to sell the 8wpc amp will be ignored - I love its sound, it's just that I have a gut feeling it would be happier driving only the mid- and up.

Here's a couple of pics of my Avantis in case anyone is unfamiliar with them:

 

I would stick with valves try kel 84 http://www.world-designs.co.uk/acatalog/AmpKits.html

it may sound unbalanced with a big transistor amp connected, i'd say the above amp would give you more than enough bass, and stay intergrated.

but if you really want power and bass go for a ampeg SVT-6PRO 750 watts rms made for bass. will probably blow your speakers though (joke)

 

I'm curious - my feelings on valves versus solid state is that valves are better for midrange up, and solid state bass is generally tighter and goes deeper. Why then would it sound 'unbalanced'?

Still looking for ideas. Hopefully tomorrow I will try the Electrocompaniet amp, and see if indeed I am really missing anything - maybe I won't - it could be, for the volumes I listen at, I don't need to biamp...

 

I've said it before, but the Crown K1 will destroy almost all amps for bass control. Admittedly it doesn't have a great deal of audiophile street cred, but then you aren't paying for it either.

 

it probably wouldn't at high volumes, but as you say you listen to music at low volume, and like the valve sound, it would overpower the bass, I have tried it and it sounded terrible in my system, the two different types of amps mess with the timing and sound false, as do most subwoofers I have heard coupled with valves, it sounds as if you need just a bit more oomph to get those speakers moving.
I have 12wpc valve power and the bass is not awesome, but why should it be ? all the instuments sound as they should, it has just the right amount of low frequency for me, if you like bass buy a massive krell or musical fidelity kw500
and do away with the valves.

but try all the stuff you can as long as it is free.
you might like it, the above is just a personal opinion.

 

Update: had alanbeeb round to the house today with his Electrocompaniet AW220 amp, cables and Behringer room correction thingy.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that we tried my system in three configs:

(1) With Minimax 8w driving Avanti IIIs alone;
(2) With AW220 (70w, bridgeable to 220w mono) driving Avantis;
(2) Minimax on mid+hi, AW220 on bass.

Due to lack of cables we didn't experiment with the room correction, so simply used the Behringer as a way of measuring the sound outputs to ensure that the AW220's variable input gain matched that of the Minimax.

(1) sounded good, as I knew it would, but at higher volumes we agreed that the 8w of valve push-pull just wasn't quite as tight as we knew the Avantis could get (i.e. very).

(2) was interesting. Darker sounding than the Minimax'd setup, with a noticeably tighter and deeper bass. Midrange and up was fractionally less detailed and darker, with a slightly shut in treble but very good nonetheless.

(3) Was the revelation: Tighter, deeper bass (the benefits of the bigger solid-state amp) coupled with the free, melodic and lyrical valve midrange and airy, detailed treble. Quite simply a very positive step, the Avantis really showed themselves to be supremely musical, ultra dynamic but never harsh.

We cranked the system a couple of times, averaging 90-95dB in room (measured at 16' from either speaker), and the bass remained very tight and solid, and the snap from the midrange was eye-blinkingly fast. However, it would be an exceptionally rare occasion for me to listen at those levels (which would quickly become uncomfortable) though we found that the AW220 (which, according to Alan, runs mainly in class A) hardly got more than warm.

I suspect we could have reached 110dB in room (average, 16') but that would have been madness!

So, it looks quite likely I will be supplementing my Minimax amps with Alan's AW220 (though I have to get this one past the wife somehow)...

Very interesting experiment, and very nice to meet another fine forum member too (it turns out we work for the same company, small world, eh?)

John