Looking for power amp with warm, smooth sound

Vandersteen and Quad come up often as "warmer" speaker suggestions. I only have experience with the Quads, which I'm more than happy with at the price point. MUCH better imaging, although I still found them a little bright until I paired them with a warmer sounding amp as well.

I'm not here to bash on MA and tell you to sell your gear, but I owned two pair of MA speakers over the past 7 years, both had the gold metallic dome tweeter which was the culprit (I originally wasn't listening to two channel much at the time I upgraded to the second pair...). I eventually tried everything, including different equipment (Denon to Rotel to Outlaw Audio to Musical Fidelity), nothing worked to cure the problem. They're just bright speakers, more intended for home theater in my opinion (which isn't esteemed...). I use Shunyata conditioning (Hydra) and good cabling as well and I agree with blindjim that cables/power conditioning help, but from my experience I eventually traded the speakers in on the Quads.

You could smooth the sound with the addition of new power cords. Gold ends (check VHAudio.com) by Oyieda will do it. The ends make the biggest difference...you can use the best Home Depot wire for the rest.

Lefty,

I own the Monitor 270s, a smaller tower featuring smaller drivers than yours - so take this comment with that caveat in mind. In my set-up, a subwoofer filled in the missing bottom octave and a half and nicely balanced the previously crisp sound. Take a look at the "measurements" section in the Stereophile on-line review of your speaker. At a glance, (and depending on your room) it looks like a sub might work for you, too. If you can borrow a sub for in-home demo, you may want to try this.

NB - If this approach works for you, the Velodyne SPLR subwoofers are being closed out at app 50% off list at Audio Advisor and IMHO represent great value.

Good Luck,

Marty

B&K M200 sonata monoblocks might give you the tube like sound you are searching for; they show up used now and then.

Dump the speakers first ...then save money for a better amp