Lamm ML2 Vs Tenor 75

Tireguy,
You are correct in remembering that I've got the 3.2's with the Lamm ML2. The combination produces unbelievable detail and dimension but I was also hoping to get a lot more air and immediacy. My concern is that the Tenor's have the potential to blow out my speakers. Not because I blast my music, but possibly due to some amp anomaly. This is what someone in the industry told me. Is there any truth to that.

Its true the ceramic midrange is very fragile, that being said I don't see how the Tenor's would be any more or less prone to having a woofer failure. A small current surge or static charge could take out a ceramic driver, I would have to assume that those forces would effect any amplifier.

At this point you have a great amp, if you are happy I wouldn't do anything. If you are looking for that last bit of performance I feel the Tenor's are the next(and last) logical step.

Henry.. OTL's are directly conneted to your speaker. Thats why there is a greater chance for a "blow-out".
There are probably some safety measures in the amp or possibly some you cn add before your speakers.. but they will compromise the sonics.
I heard both amps you are looking at.
IMHO, you should look at the BAT VK-75SE. It's alot less $$$ with almost all the goodness.
Its not quite as fast as the Tenor, but its very close.. with lots of air. The Lamm has that SET magic, but is harder to match up to speakers.
Good luck,
Mike

To clairify my last statement about OTL's. The tube is directly connected to the speakers. So if a tube shorts, it can send lots of current to the speakers.
A transformer based amp, isolates this current along with other saftey features.
mike

Henry,
You are "hoping to get a lot more air and immediacy". The Kharmas are known for not having an over-abundance of air on top, and neitehr does the Lamm (though to a lesser extent). So you will have to 'work' to get as much air as this combination is capable of. When you say that you also want to increase 'immediacy', this may indicate that there may be something else in your system that is suboptimal, sucking away some of the performance that is possible with your amp/speaker combination. Have you tried various vibration isloation techniques with the ML2? Even though Vladimir designs the amps with specific attention to isloating the parts from mechanical vibration - they still benefit from further attention to this tube-component's curse.

As far as the Tenor/Kharma combination is concerned, Tireguy is correct in that this is certainly a very synergistic combination - on par with the Lamm/Kharma combination - but with a different 'flavor'. One of the immediately obvious differences is in the dynamics, both micro and macro: whereas the Lamm, correctly isolated, renders all of the dynamics in a flowing, almost joyous manner, the Tenors render them in an eager and youthful, exciting manner. I am not familiar enough with the Tenors to say how they wear over time with respect to their innate musicality and naturalness - but people I respect have been very, very happy with them. I have also never heard of a Tenor damaging a speaker, and having talked to the people at Tenor who are very competent and detail oriented engineers, I think you can go back to worrying about lightning strikes and rogue vacuum cleaners and those other, numerous, more common audiophile hazards... :-)

Best,
Mike (Lamm dealer)