DAC/Amp and speaker pairing.

[Archertwin]

I am looking to get a new set of speakers and have heard good things about the Elac B6s. Is the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X7 an appropriate paired DAC/Amp/Receiver unit  for them? When using headphones I like the ATH-AD900x with a Modmic.

 

Advice on the combo or possible different recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[Volbet]

The X7's speaker amp isn't that powerful if memory serves right. I remember it as being rated at 20W pr. channel at 1% distortion at 8 ohm (or atleast in that ballpark).

I don't think that would be powerful enough to drive the B6s to any satisfactory volume. since they're rated at 30W-120W pr. channel at 6 ohm (which means the X7 should run at 8 ohm). 

 

Also, are you using the B6s at a desk? I don't really recommend them for that, since they usually sound better when listned at at a distance. 

 

But if you're deadset on the B6s, then I would recommend you pick up one of the small SMSL amps like the SA-50 or SA98E. 

You just run a line-out from your X7 to the speaker amp and let that do the amplification and volume control. 

[Archertwin]

The speakers would be for HTPC/Stereo, maybe 7 feet away from the listener. 

[Volbet]

2 minutes ago, Archertwin said:

The speakers would be for HTPC/Stereo, maybe 7 feet away from the listener. 

That's more than fine. 

[Archertwin]

Okay. 

Also, why would you run the amp at 8 ohms instead of 4?

[Volbet]

11 minutes ago, Archertwin said:

Okay. 

Also, why would you run the amp at 8 ohms instead of 4?

You would want to set the amp to an resistance higher or equal to that of the speaker due the resistance rating of the speaker not being a constant.

That said, you could try to run the speakers at 4 ohm. Nothing bad will happen exept the volume being lower. 

[Archertwin]

Okay. Thank you for helping. Cheers.