Rega Brio R & Monitor Audio GX50's

Pairing the Brio R with the GX50s might be overreaching a bit, try setting your sights a bit lower to a RX1, or maybe KEF's Q300. And in either case make sure you have enough space from back walls.

Why would it be over reaching?! The Rega amp is a good little amp at its price and does very well with numerous speakers; not heard it yet with Monitor Audio but have with KEF R speakers, Neat and Rega speakers and it sounded fantastic!

I heard the GX50's and GX100's with my Marantz CR603 and they sounded fantastic! They're not exactly a hard speaker to drive!

Not really that interested in the RX1's as I've already got the RX2's and the KEF Q series, to me, are rubbish. Horrible, flat sounding with no detail

If you like detail and hear everything that is to listenig in the record, please demo the Dynaudio Excite X12, they are a very revealing spearer.

You can almoust hear what the singer is thinking... ;) 

it works for me! The Excites are a very special set of spekers... 

unfortunately no one deals with Dynaudio near to me bar the Xeo speakers so the X12's are out

An amplifier that is fully in control of a lesser speaker will generally sound better than the same amp that isn't in full control of a better, more demanding speaker. Revealing speakers will reveal shortcomings in the partnering amplifier.

What do you mean by that David?

i heard the Brio R with Neat Motive 3s, Rega RS3s and KEF R100s and they were all brilliant so would have thought that the GX50s would be just as good or am I totally wrong?!

I would suggest the Brio-R will be fine with GX50s in isolation. I do think what David is saying, put simply, is that side-by-side with a more expensive amp, it may demonstrate a few shortcomings if pushed hard.

MAs aren't the most demanding of speakers, unlike ATC, Dyns etc., But when isolated the combo should sound fine. A dem will confirm this theory... or not.

Good luck 

I'm running a Brio-R with a set of speakers that are reportedly quite difficult to drive and the Brio-R does well at moderate to moderately high volumes.  I don't have a huge room though (3-4m x 8-9m).  Check out what they say about the Brio-R driving low-impedance speakers in the tone audio review. 

As pointed out, a demo will confirm.

I dont have the technical details of either amplfier or speaker but the little Rega amplifier has what looks like a relatively small supply.

So whilst it will probably sound fine at lower volume, a few watts, it may not have the necessary grip, control and dynamic ability to exploit good recordings at high volume. That is where well designed larger amplifiers come into their own. Using a sensitive speaker will go some way to compensate for this though this sensitivity sometimes comes at cost of a very reactive speaker load which, again, can tax amplifier power supplies and causes a new set of potential problems. Most modern transistor amplifers should not have to much of a problem with this though as long as operated within their parameters.

regards

We all talk about amplifiers that lack sufficient grip at high volumes for certain speakers. One thing I've tried to get across many times is that its not just at higher volumes that some of these amplifiers lack grip with certain speakers - it is any volume. If an amplifier is driving the speaker properly, it should sound tight and punchy, but there are many amplifiers out there that can't even manage tight and punchy at lower levels.

I'm not saying this is the case with the Brio-R, I'm just making the point that it isn't necessarily just high volumes where the problem lies.

hi Frank

That is so right! 

With the Brio R driving the Dyns that some times people talk about them as being difficult to drive, but they forget that the Excite range was design not to be so hard as the other series in Dynaudio range models. 

And with that in mind and your post and my ears, in fact the Brio R drive my Dyns with "Grip" and "punch" at lower volumes ( 7/8 o'clock) at 10 to 12 o'clock it sound so alive and natural, full of grip and control! 

When things start to "not sound so right" but that depends on the record, might I add, is 2/3 o'clock ahead. 

When I don't have those 3/4 hours of listening in the day I kind get depressed, that is how much i LOVE to hear my sistem!!! 

Not according to the spec sheets. Please enlighten.

Correct, to an extend.

To supply the current necessary to control low impedance loads, an amplifier needs a beefy power supply. This is further exhaggerated at higher volume/near the limits of design parameters. If these are exceeded, output can sagg, the amplifier clips and if you are really unlucky, the resulting distortion/harmonics can fry your tweeters or you can fry outputs if the protection doesn't kick in.

If the amplifier has a weak power supply, control of difficult load speakers will suffer at any volume. To deliver large amounts of current (to ensure non-problematic operation with different speakers, especially reactive, low impedance ones), you need a large, beefy power supply, multiple output devices and with it the heat sinking required. - This is why even relatively 'low power' but very large amplifiers such as the ones from the likes of Musical Fidelity are often reported to have grip beyond their rating. - Sure, they will run out of puff sooner than a multi hundred watt Krell (or MF's own high power units) but within their design rating, will likely drive any speaker without much problem.

Then again, thats only half the story as for dynamic peaks, an amp needs to swing volts. The two are not inseparable but designers often have different priorities. - Say for example actives, because the load is known exactly, super high current delivery is probably not at the forefront of the designers list. He/she will design the amplifier with as much current delivery as necessary and ideally, as much volt swing as possible. The amplifier in an active design will not have to cope with widely differing loads of different speakers, only with the one of the used units.

This is my limited understanding. Anyone disagreeing or finding fault please correct me.

regards

Would there be a similar issue with the Cyrus 8XPdQX amp?