Beoplay S8 speakers with 3rd party amp

Hi there, I am new to the forum, and allow me to have a (maybe naive) question, for which I did not find an answer yet.

So I really like the Beoplay S8, but frankly, I can not afford to change my whole setup now, but I would like to extend it with the s8 satellite speakers, which I could buy now separately. 

I have a Tangent Ampster amplifier now, but its output is 2x50W (@4ohm). I would like to connect the 2 s8 speakers to this amp, but I am not sure if it fits, in terms of power. I am not an expert, but I read that if the amp doesn't have enough power, it can also harm the speakers. Looking at the specs sheet of the S8, it's amps have 2x140W. So my question is: would this power of this amp be enough? I have a small room, so I am not worried of the loudness, but rather to be confident to buy the speakers, so that I will not kill them with a weak amplifier. 

(I have an active Jamo sub)

thanks in advance!

50 watts at 4 ohms should be enough power for low volumes or a small room, IF you aren't driving the bass into the satellites (see below).  You can hear it when distortion gets bad enough to trash speakers -- just advance the volume slowly the first time, to get a feel for if/when they start to "break up".  Although Tangent's amp doesn't claim to have actual power-limiting circuits to prevent trouble, it does have overheat protection, which prevents one cause.  However, you probably want to *ask* Tangent whether they are sending the full-frequency (i.e. incl. bass) signal to the main speakers regardless of whether or not your Jamo sub is plugged in, because they don't say it's frequency-limited, and that would chew up a fair bit of power.  Also we have no way of knowing what equalization the S8 sub is doing to the signal before sending it out to its satellites, so you may not get the very best sound.  But since that amp cost 200 and a new S8 costs 1400, we presume you're buying the satellites cheap/used from someone who has a broken subwoofer?  Just make sure *they* haven't damaged them, before you pay up.  (BTW, Too bad Tangent's amp design isn't as Jacob-Jensen as their "Fjord".)  (By way of comparison, a BeoLink Passive has only 30Watts (8 ohms) per channel, which is higher, but close.)

Thanks for the reply, it was really helpful!

I'd like to update my suggestion, to add a note of caution: Rather than "breaking up" I should have said that the very beginnings of distortion from an underpowered amp sound like "harshness" or "coarseness". So you start just sitting across the table from the speakers, quietly nearfield listening as if they were computer speakers, and set up your source to play A-->B repeatedly. Now you know what they *should* sound like. Then you can back away and turn them up gradually. (Some people take "breaking up" to mean fuzzing noises and drop-outs, and that's probably already too far.) The other note is about the powered sub and the amp: Your amp does *not* sense a subwoofer connection and high-pass the main speakers; it sends full frequency output to the main speakers always. (Note the same is true for similar non-AV(theater) integrated amps, e.g. NAD C328 and D3020 work the same way.) If you could rely on the crossover circuitry in your sub to do this, I'd suggest using speaker-level in/out (if available), thus it would high-pass the main speakers. But I'm not sure that would draw much less power -- even though the full frequency signal wouldn't get passed through, there is probably some artificial load presented to the amp to make that happen? Hope you upload your opinions and experience for others, once you've tried it out yourself!

Thanks for your update.

Well, I was not sure of the potential outcome, that's why I asked your advice here, as I don't really have technical knowledge.

So I might just let it go, and don't buy these speakers, no matter how I love their look, and they surely sound amazing. Its just, if its not sure, that they will work with my gears (which I dont want to change now, I guess), maybe better to save some more money, and buy the whole system.

 

They *will* work, the question is just how loud before you have to back off.  An amp won't destroy speakers without you noticing it happen.  (OK, theoretically you could have a piece of music with such wide dynamic range that it catches you by surprise, but that's rare.  If you turn up the 1812 Overture and then get hit with the Howitzers at the end... :-)  My cautious tone was because one hates to give advice blindly and be responsible for *any* dissatisfaction.

Let me give an example to make this concrete: If I could get the sats for 400 or less and I knew they were OK, I just would.  If they didn't play loud enough or I started to worry about them too much, I would put them away until I could [swap&spend] 400 for a bigger amp.  At that point you're still less than 800 in, versus 1400 for the full S8 rig.  But I simply wouldn't spend 700 for those satellites, or if whatever-price was such a stretch that it was imperative to keep using a 200 amp and a leftover Jamo woofer for years, then I wouldn't.  There.  More than anybody wanted to know about me.  Hope it helps.

It helps, thank you very much! 

btw a bit off the topic: The Beoplay S8 MKI (so without the connection kit) does have any digital in or only analog? I am using an Airport Express with toslink for airplay. Do I get it right, that without the connection kit it is not possible to connect to the main unit of the S8?

thank you very much for your reply. it is really really helpful for me. by the way, i wanted to ask you if i may come back asking you questions in case i would have some for you? as i can see that you know these things very well!  thanks a lot again!