Brownsfan,
How amazingly generous of you to take all this time and trouble! I really appreciate it. And thanks for the notes about the Concident amps. I wasn't aware that Concident even marketed amps, I'd only heard of their speakers.
I have been in touch with both Tash Goka of Ref 3A and Steve Deckert of Decware.
Tash says that the Antique Sound Labs ASL AQ 1005 DT (8 wpc) was designed with the De Capo in mind and will drive it quite nicely. It's a 300b based SET. It retails for $3000.
Steve Deckert recommended his 6 WPC, EL34-based SET, the Decware SE34I.4, which he said would sound twice as good (!) as the Manley (for a variety of reasons which he enumerated) and fall to the Manley only in terms of overall power. In other words, if I wanted to "crank it" then the Decware wouldn't play as loud as the Mahi's. But, he added, "in the end it will sound so good you won't care." The stock SE34I.4 goes for only $1300 with one input and one volume knob. Other inputs can be ordered at extra cost in order to negate the need for a preamp altogether.
Brownsfan (and everyone), what'cha think? ;-)
How amazingly generous of you to take all this time and trouble! I really appreciate it. And thanks for the notes about the Concident amps. I wasn't aware that Concident even marketed amps, I'd only heard of their speakers.
I have been in touch with both Tash Goka of Ref 3A and Steve Deckert of Decware.
Tash says that the Antique Sound Labs ASL AQ 1005 DT (8 wpc) was designed with the De Capo in mind and will drive it quite nicely. It's a 300b based SET. It retails for $3000.
Steve Deckert recommended his 6 WPC, EL34-based SET, the Decware SE34I.4, which he said would sound twice as good (!) as the Manley (for a variety of reasons which he enumerated) and fall to the Manley only in terms of overall power. In other words, if I wanted to "crank it" then the Decware wouldn't play as loud as the Mahi's. But, he added, "in the end it will sound so good you won't care." The stock SE34I.4 goes for only $1300 with one input and one volume knob. Other inputs can be ordered at extra cost in order to negate the need for a preamp altogether.
Brownsfan (and everyone), what'cha think? ;-)