DALEDEEE

Personally, I would not be satisfied without a subwoofer. Then bi-amp. Speakers will sound better and you could go with a smaller tube amp if that's what you prefer.

I think Bottlehead will assemble them if you want. Decware also get good reviews. The ones that get the most rave reviews IMO are the Dennis Had amps. He lists them on ebay and are very very good. I would also talk to Duke @ Audiokinesis about a couple subwoofers and an amp. They sell for $1600. You will still be under $5000 for a nice amp and some subwoofers. I owned an Aegir and it is a Power amp, not an integrated. It does sound really nice. I moved up the Pass XA25 which is in your budget but also a power amp. I personally don't want any Chinese knockoffs. Where do you fix them? Warranty? Throwaway?

Bob Crites supplies black fabric that will work. It cost me $52 for the fabric and $50 to have the fabric installed. some shipping cost also.

Thanks for the point. The DAC has 2V RCA output and Pass amp has 47Kohm input impedance. Is that good enough?

I have a Pass XA25. It says 25W but actually puts out about 80W(8ohms). I think this is a difference for the First Watt amps. Most of them don't put out over 20 watts. If I were to pick one, it would be the SIT 2. It is tube-like in sound. A great match with horn speakers. I would not buy the Chinese amps. Warranty repairs would be quite an issue.

I run streamer to DAC to crossover then to the amps. Never had any problems and lots of volume. Found this out when I needed to replace both my CD player and my preamp. So in an effort to keep costs down, I tried this and it works great. Streaming is all I do.

Hi, I have some Cornscala B's I ordered built complete from Bob Crites. I haven't had a chance to listen to anything else lately but these sound really good to me. I have seen a wood horn that ALK sells that looks pretty nice. The Horn i have has a vertical opening which I was told is not as good???? Also does adding braces affect the specs of the speaker?

@Area 51 Unless I don't understand what you want, you can use an electronic cross over. Send signal from preamp or directly from a DAC to the crossover. Then send an interconnect to each amp, one for subs and one for main speakers It would cut off let's say 80-100 Hz and below to the main speakers. Then the wires to each speaker. I just ran stereo wires to my subs but some crossovers have a summing function. I have a basic one it is kind of home made but has the Marchand XM1 modules in it(two for stereo) This will basically turn your main speakers into monitors and cut off below whatever your crossover is set at. I also think it makes the main speakers sound better. This also reduced the load to the Aegir since the bass takes most of the power. I use a Yamaha P2700 for bass so I am matching a 350 watt amp with a 25 watt amp Marchand Electronics sells an analog crossover like I spoke of before. You can get fancy and add room correction. I did not go with room correction but instead treated my room with acoustic panels. The crossover regardless of which one has gain control(volume?) to adjust the output of your amps and/or speakers. These crossovers start at about $700 and are hard to get used. Mine is called a 3 way I think. I am not an expert but I think I described what I have correctly!!?? Some get rid of the crossovers in each speaker and try to run amps to each driver but I feel this is for experts. You can get balanced crossover if that is how you are running your Vidars. PS I had an Aegir driving Cornscalas(pretty much same efficiency and size as Cornwall). I really liked the sound. A single Aegir would play quite loud. However, I wanted to go further up the ladder and bought a Pass XA 25. Now we are talkin' next level in sound and in price.

@madman1. The tell is I can walk around my 13X21 room and the sound is uniform except a little louder bass in the back near the diffusion panels. I could use some more bass treatment but not much. Once you get the bass right, it is so satifying and a discovery as to how much information there is at the bottom of the musical spectrum. I got lucky and was able to place my subs right in between the main speakers. Sometimes, people have to put them around the room. I also am going to experiment with changing my crossover frequency to 80 Hz. It cost me 29 dollars for a plug in to do this. I think this minimizes the vibration and improves the sound of the Cornscalas. The Cornscalas and the subs will scare you if you are not familiar with the music. The dynamics and bass slam is impressive. Due to the similarities between CS and CW I think there will definitely be benefit from a couple subwoofers.

I can feel resonance in the cabinet sides, tops and horn of my Cornscalas. I am not much of a DIY guy. I have heard everything from bracing to wrapping the mid horn with dynamat, sticking a pillow in the cabinet, filling the cabinet with fiber, to not messing with the design. Therefore, I have remained chicken to change them. I think they sound pretty darn good but haven't had a lot to compare to.

I have Cornscalas with two 10" subs. This with bass traps makes some very, very good bass. Even without more subs, some sound treatments will do a lot for the bass. in your case it looks like you have a pretty open area which limits sound treatments and takes more subs for the true bottom octave. My subs go to the 20s which is plenty.

Schiit Vidar 100W $700 new. Might see a used one but a nice amp for the money. 5 yr warranty

It seems like every room will have compromises. I have the two bass traps sitting behind the system. Those are 8" thick. All others are 6" and easily hung with a picture hanger. You can get these in all kinds of colors and fabric. You can even get pictures transferred to the front of each panel . I will add some pictures under my system. The ones on my computer are too big to add to this post.

I have Crites speakers. I bought them about a year ago and messed around with them for several months. The sound was pretty good but fell apart unless you were within the apex of that triangle. My room is 7.5'X13'x21'. I bought 11 GIK sound panels. The wall panels, diffusion panels and the bass traps are all bass traps. They are all 6" thick and 8' thick. At the same time I used the Vandersteen formula for speaker placement. It is on their website. Wallah! After this setup and placement of the panels my bass is much better, imaging is superb and I can walk around the room and the sound is pretty much the same. Previously I had complete cancellation of certain frequencies. Sound panels are definitely one of the vital parts of a sound system. Granted I have a dedicated listening room and plenty of room for the panels.