Amps/Speaker Selection Help Please

Funny you bring up PS Audio, I'm gonna be pulling the trigger on a Gain Cell dac/pre and a Stellar S300 in a month or so. I absolutely love my refurbished Sansui 9090, but I'm getting tired of all the bullschiit with vintage. I'm just too anal lol, and I miss remote control.

PS audio makes really nice stuff, I've heard the Sprout and its quite good, but If I were you though, I'd go with the NAD.

If you guys are interested, I'll report back when I get the Stellar stack

 

I did pretty high end surround with sacds and DVD audios in the early/mid 2000's, but I'm pretty much a 2 channel guy now.

I do probably 98% vinyl when I'm home. Digital is for when I'm out and about for the most part. I've got about 200 gigs of hi res and flac files on my LG V30 phone which sounds outstanding with headphones, and surprisingly good through Bluetooth in the car

 

Nice! NAD’s PowerDrive system is not BS in my experience. I bet the 356BEE will drive your ELACs effortlessly. Enjoy and let us know how you like it!

 

No, PS Audio makes some very nice gear, not "snake oil".

I have the older 50-Watt Sprout, bought it used to have as an extra portable amp when testing new equipment or something that I might have a problem with.

It is not something that I would use as my main system amp, but I suspect that it is really nice for what it is.

I would not compare it to the NAD!

 

Please report back, I like Paul, he's kind of a dork but I like his YouTube videos. Informative.

I was looking at the Stellar, someday.


However, their noise harvesters? Come on.

It really is a great time to be an audiophile. I couldn't imagine the cost 10 years ago.

Thanks for all your help fellas. I mean that. If you're ever near SC look me up!

 

Will do my man! I like his videos too, he seems like a cool guy. He's all in on being a crazy audiophile and proud of it, I dig that lol. We need that in an amp designer I think, its not always all about measurements

 

OK - Just an update for those who care:

I received the NAD 356BEE - this thing sounded killer - for about 5 minutes. All of a sudden - a plume of smoke came from the middle of the amplifier. I contacted the dealer - told him what was up - he said he will contact NAD about the issue and will ship me out a replacement asap.

I will say it was still functioning thereafter - it allowed me to listen to the new Imagine 2018 vinyl with flawless performance. However, I shouldn't be worried it's going to explode at any time. So - I will trade it out for a replacement unit.

If this one does something similar, fingers crossed it doesn't, I will try and find something in the 500 range that has the power needed. You guys were exactly right - these Elacs love power, that is how they shine.

 

Whao! That’s wild. Glad they’re sending a replacement. I’d be surprised if your replacement blows smoke too.

If you do have bad luck with the next one, you can buy a new C 316BEE for $399 and a DAC for $100 - JDS Labs and Schiit both have good options in that price range. The 326 only has 10 more watts than the 316 which translates to a barely perceptible increase in power/volume.

 

Thanks Ed! I will probably do that!

 

I think that your NAD amp having smoke come out of it is a very rare experience. I doubt if you would ever encounter that happening again.

 

The 316 is half the power of the 356

 

I forgot that you had a 356 and not a 326. SirMarc is correct - the 356 is 80w and the 316 is 40w. Still, going from 80w to 40w would only decrease your output by 3dB.