McIntosh 240 with B&W 808 Speakers ?

[tubes&vinyl]

Greetings Everyone, I hope I am posting this question in the correct Forum. I am new to posting however have used this site for a long time for info, thank you Audiokarma.

I have a Mac 240 amp that I would love to use to drive my B&W 808 speakers. Some time back I contacted B&W reps and they really did not know the answer to my question, which is "will the MC240 drive these speakers and make them and the Amp operate well" ? At 40 WPC, the Mac's power is somewhat under what the B&W manual recommends, however I don't play it more than 5 to 10 Watts. If anyone is familiar enough with the B&W's could please give me an opinion. I have been using a 250 WPC Power amp at this time with the speakers but would like to hear them with a tube amp. I am currently re-capping a pair of MC-60's that I plan to eventually use with the B*W's if that would be kosher. Thanks in advance for your input and opinions.

 

[MACKIE1975]

Whatever the power rating of the B&W speakers, you really want to double that on the amp side. B&W speakers are power hungry and they sound best when you amp it up with high rated power amp. I have owned quite a few pairs of B&W and tested with amp likes Crown, Crest Audio, Rotel, Carver, Integra and McIntosh. I really like to drive B&W with high power amp from Rotel or McIntosh.
Normally, I play at about 15-30 watts (wife & kids) but occasionally, I will drive it up to 150w or more.

 

[tubes&vinyl]

I just deleted what I wrote as I googled the speakers afterwards. Nice and big speakers, bet they sound great!

Yes they are large, what is the equivalent to 2 801's in each cabinet. They (the 808 commercial design) were developed as studio monitors to compete with other manufacturers to be more efficient than earlier models due to recording studios complaining about the power demand. These are the same design in a consumer cabinet. I am not sure the 40 WPC will be sufficient but may attempt a trial. I don't want to damage either the speakers of the Mac amp ....

 

[tubes&vinyl]

Whatever the power rating of the B&W speakers, you really want to double that on the amp side. B&W speakers are power hungry and they sound best when you amp it up with high rated power amp. I have owned quite a few pairs of B&W and tested with amp likes Crown, Crest Audio, Rotel, Carver, Integra and McIntosh. I really like to drive B&W with high power amp from Rotel or McIntosh.
Normally, I play at about 15-30 watts (wife & kids) but occasionally, I will drive it up to 150w or more.

Thanks for your input. In the past I always used high power amps for my main system but also have the less powerful tube amps that I enjoy and would like to hear them through the B&W's. I have a smaller pair of B&W speakers that I use for a different system with a tube amp and they sound very good, however the 808's are in a whole different class of speaker. My current amp is solid state and will put out well over 1000 WPC, I just want to try these with tubes.... Regards

 

[for_p1]

Whatever the power rating of the B&W speakers, you really want to double that on the amp side. B&W speakers are power hungry and they sound best when you amp it up with high rated power amp. I have owned quite a few pairs of B&W and tested with amp likes Crown, Crest Audio, Rotel, Carver, Integra and McIntosh. I really like to drive B&W with high power amp from Rotel or McIntosh.
Normally, I play at about 15-30 watts (wife & kids) but occasionally, I will drive it up to 150w or more.

They will work with your Mac. But high power solid state will sound better, especially in bass. With tube gear bass will not be as tight as it should be (though you can feel more of it with tubes).

 

[damacman]

Going off of the OP's original post with "5 to 10 watts" of power:

- At 5 wpc, an MC240 has 9dB of headroom per channel
- At 10 wpc, an MC240 has 6dB of headroom per channel

Go for it.

 

[tubes&vinyl]

Going off of the OP's original post with "5 to 10 watts" of power:

- At 5 wpc, an MC240 has 9dB of headroom per channel
- At 10 wpc, an MC240 has 6dB of headroom per channel

Go for it.

Thanks, I think I will ...... that is a lot, especially compared to todays amps

 

[for_p1]

Going off of the OP's original post with "5 to 10 watts" of power:

- At 5 wpc, an MC240 has 9dB of headroom per channel
- At 10 wpc, an MC240 has 6dB of headroom per channel

Go for it.

Headroom should be counted against 105 dB sound level at listening position. This is practically a standard in general purpose sound system setup.

 

[damacman]

That wasn't what the OP specified nor asked.

 

[tubes&vinyl]

.

For shiggles here is what I had typed (seeing as how it's still here)

"I've run my cdm1-se (120 W rms) with a number of low powered 15-30 watt receivers. They sounded fine. I see no problem, especially at 5-10 W.

I tried a Nikko NR-320, a couple realistic including their "bpc" mini receiver from about 94, onkyo tx-1500,etc. You should be xtra solid w that Mc and more power."

Take it with a grain of salt. My gut feeling says you will be pleasantly surprised. I can't say that I could tell a difference in sound quality at lower volumes when powered with 15 W or 200W.

1. Thanks for the info. I believe I will give this a try Sunday when I will have the time to change hookups on all the components . They are not terribly inefficient, rated 91db, 1W into 8Ω @ 1KHZ. If the 240 works well then I can assume when I get the MC60's restored, they should sound good as well. Regards. Mike

 

[twiiii]

The 808 at the time was my favorite speaker, it easily out performed the 801. My only complaint was the narrow vertical dispersion of the tweeter. The speakers had very low distortion for the time and were easily the leader in over all performance. With a rating of 91 db sensitivity a 240 putting out 50 watts will give you 108 db at a meter or around 98 db near your listening position. Subtract 6 to 10 db for instantaneous peaks and that leaves you with appox. 90 db. with room for life like dynamics. Not concert level for sure but adequate for most listeners. If you are into recordings with lots of faithful dynamics, and you feel there is some irritating noises entering your listening experiences I'm afraid the 240 is going to be at fault. A Mono strapped pair 275 would give you another 6 db of head room. But thats for you to decide and would be my first choice. If your room is bright and you sit closer than 10 to 12 ft you'll pick up added few db and the 240 might be just adequate, especially if the wife has sensitive hearing. I listen at 2 watts for loud passages with 20 to 40watt peaks in the bass and my speakers are 4 db more efficient,. I have close to 260 watts, so I have another 7 db of head room. There are maybe twelve recordings I have while listening at 2 watts that can cause my Mac amps power guard lights to flash instantaneously, so I don't worry. You on the other hand would be in big trouble being over 10 db deep into horrendous distortion. I'm a SS guy. But if I were looking for the tube amp, Audio Classics has pairs of 3500's and new 2300's for sale. That said when Auditioning some Magico S series speakers with the same sensitivity as your 808's a 275 worked perfectly for the audition. We had been previously listening using MC 601's with 12 watts indicated and the 275's was a better match at those levels producing more faithful reproduction of the recording, which surprised me. You truly have a great pair of speakers, and I enjoyed my pair of 240's for 5 years before buying the 275's . Both gave outstanding performance in the 60's and early 70's and I hope your 240 does, too.

 

[tubes&vinyl]

They will work with your Mac. But high power solid state will sound better, especially in bass. With tube gear bass will not be as tight as it should be (though you can feel more of it with tubes).

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your taking the time to respond

 

[tubes&vinyl]

The 808 at the time was my favorite speaker, it easily out performed the 801. My only complaint was the narrow vertical dispersion of the tweeter. The speakers had very low distortion for the time and were easily the leader in over all performance. With a rating of 91 db sensitivity a 240 putting out 50 watts will give you 108 db at a meter or around 98 db near your listening position. Subtract 6 to 10 db for instantaneous peaks and that leaves you with appox. 90 db. with room for life like dynamics. Not concert level for sure but adequate for most listeners. If you are into recordings with lots of faithful dynamics, and you feel there is some irritating noises entering your listening experiences I'm afraid the 240 is going to be at fault. A Mono strapped pair 275 would give you another 6 db of head room. But thats for you to decide and would be my first choice. If your room is bright and you sit closer than 10 to 12 ft you'll pick up added few db and the 240 might be just adequate, especially if the wife has sensitive hearing. I listen at 2 watts for loud passages with 20 to 40watt peaks in the bass and my speakers are 4 db more efficient,. I have close to 260 watts, so I have another 7 db of head room. There are maybe twelve recordings I have while listening at 2 watts that can cause my Mac amps power guard lights to flash instantaneously, so I don't worry. You on the other hand would be in big trouble being over 10 db deep into horrendous distortion. I'm a SS guy. But if I were looking for the tube amp, Audio Classics has pairs of 3500's and new 2300's for sale. That said when Auditioning some Magico S series speakers with the same sensitivity as your 808's a 275 worked perfectly for the audition. We had been previously listening using MC 601's with 12 watts indicated and the 275's was a better match at those levels producing more faithful reproduction of the recording, which surprised me. You truly have a great pair of speakers, and I enjoyed my pair of 240's for 5 years before buying the 275's . Both gave outstanding performance in the 60's and early 70's and I hope your 240 does, too.

Thank you for your response. Very interesting reading. I do have a pair of MC-75's (but not 275's) that may get some use with the 808's, I have always enjoyed the sound of the 240.I have used it with the Caver AL-III;s and it was somewhat under powered for them. I also have a pair of Electro Voice Regency III's that are great with it. It powers the B&W CDM's well and also a pair of Electro Voice Interface D that are an excellent match, however the 808's outperform them all in my opinion. If I am not satisfied with the sound, I may look at the 2300's or even a new Marantz SS piece. I also have a pair of vintage Heathkit W6-M's I would love to pair the 808's with, however they need restoration. Thanks for the compliment on the Speakers. I too genuinely enjoy them. As you can see, I enjoy the Vintage sound ! And thanks again for taking the time to give me some excellent opinions. Best Regards, Mike