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.

You have a nice looking set up there. I may be posting this for others but I have Crites speakers which are very similar to Cornwalls. I use a Schiit Aegir 20W cost $835 to my door. Sound is Class A to 10W and very easy to listen to! Regardless of which amp you buy I would call Duke at Audiokinesis and get a pair of his subs. This will make your Heresy's go to a new level. I think an amp and 2 subs are about $1600. The addition of subs properly utilized will improve bass down to mid 20Hz, sound stage much better and just move your system up to the new level. Second thing I would do is add sound treatment if possible, unless you have them and not visible in picture. GIK is very helpful and reasonable. I got my room done for about $1300 including freight. Got 6 side wall first reflection panels, 2 bass traps and 3 diffusion panels. This is also a huge upgrade.

You may be correct that the Topping D90 will receive Bluetooth. However, I can hard wire the Bluesound. My music room is in the basement while the router is upstairs.

I bought a refurbished node 2i last fall. I then bought a Topping D90 DAC and now we're talkin!! I use a $30 coax to connect. I ran a Cat 6 cable to the Bluesound from the router. The only complaint I have with this whole system is the Amazon HD interface with the Bluesound controller. I had used Amazon music for sometime into some Edifier wireless speakers. It is quite easy and you can navigate quite easily. Much of that is lost with the Bluesound. I have done some reading and as near as I can figure out it is a metadata issue from Amazon. This setup sound is superior to my Rotel 975 CD player.

I am not sure how Class D amps would sound with Klipsch or similar speakers. Probably good for bass amplification? Lots of watts at a decent cost. PS Audio makes a brand new one for $1K BobRiff: I see Vidar for sale used if that is what you want. People always comment on Schiit being great sound for the money.

Schiit Vidar 100W brand new 699 Schiit Aegir 20W. Highly rated by Stereophile. I use a sub so I can get more volume than I need. 799. I have this one and it is a great match for horns. Adcom GFA555. You can find upgraded ones for 4-500. But are about 20 yr old. Lots of power 250W I think. Carver stuff. Not expensive but pretty old. Lots of power. Schiit has 5 yr warranty made in USA. Used stuff in the 400 range is usually older. the Pass Labs stuff would be my ultimate. Much higher price and nameplate is way conservative on those. Those are 4000 used.

I rekindled my audio interest and lo and behold "What is this thing I can hook up to my stereo?" I bought a Blue Dento $95 on Amazon. It has all the up to date BT. It sounded better than my 20 yr old Rotel CD player. That got put on the shelf. Then I was in an audio shop and told to try Cat 6 from my router to the streamer. Can't do that with Blue Dento so I bought a Bluesound Node 2i. Definitely better sound. The Amazon ap is better but you can run any streaming service through the Bluesound ap. So with further reading most say a stand alone DAC is another leap. I have now been looking around. Since digital is still a moving target and has improved, I want to buy new so here is summary of costs and findings: Blue Dento $95. I will sell mine if you want it. Bluesound Node 2i streamer 419 refurbished which I bought. 549 new Sabaj D5 DAC Latest and greatest chip. Chinese company but great reviews for sound. About 470 Topping DX7 has same greatest chip. MME costs more and has DSP but good value Schiit Modi 3 49 dollars Schiit Modi multibit 249. Schiit makes a lot of good DAC I will probably buy the Sabaj. There seems to be a sale on them right now.

I have a Marchand analog XM1 2 way. I have had it for 20 years. I thought there was something wrong with it. Opened it up and it said 1985 on it. Sent it in, nothing wrong(my poor diagnosis). While it was there, we put better op amps in it. I think it sounds good. Also has high and low volumes. The new version digital XM 44 is $1000 balanced is +150. Is DSP used to make up for speaker issues or room issues? Knowing my behavior it would be endless tweaking.