Ricred1,
You mentioned Absolare and I’m very familiar with their sound. A good friend had the Absolare Passion Signature 845 PSET amplifiers and the Passion Signature Line Stage for 2 years driving his Rockport Altair speakers. He’s had numerous excellent amplifiers, Symphonic Line RG4 mono blocks, YTL 450, VAC Phi 300.1 etc. In my opinion the Absolare Passion is superior to all of the rest (not meant as a put down).
He now uses the Krell FPB 600 mono blocks, he feels they are more suitable for the Altair’s load impedance characteristics. Maybe so on paper and granted the bass region is very good. I do respect his decision , however as far as I am concerned, overall I’ll choose the Absolare for pure naturalness and superb musically emotional engagement.
I’ve heard Ypsilon and they’re excellent but excessively expensive. Larryi mentioned Viva and I would concur. The Viva Aurora amplifier is better sounding in my opinion than any transistor amplifier I can think of if given the appropriate speaker match. When I say better sounding I’m referring to a natural character and realism. As individual listeners we value sonic qualities and prioritize differently undoubtedly.
Charles,
