Best Tube Amp For Sonus Faber? Or Pass XA-100.5? $6-7,500 Budget, Purchasing Used.

Nightfall,

I've recently heard a system that had Olympica 2's paired with a pass xp-10 preamp and the xa100.5 mono's, I know you have the 3's but this was a very nice combo.
Plenty of pwr with a very nice engaging midrange and too end with excellent control and no bloat whatsoever on the bottom end.

The owner is a friend in our local audio club and he was a longtime tube guy for many years and he is totally satisfied with the sound,other than upgrading to the 3's someday.

The Olympica's are not a easy load for a Amp I personally would stay away from tubes,just my opinion.

The pass gear would be easier to sale just in case you needed to sale it,just a thought.

Kenny.

I tend to agree with George, I'm not sure that a tube amp would work well with the Sonus Faber Olympica III's, they are not an easy load.

Any VAC amp that can put out 100 wpc and use KT-150 tubes though MAY be able to do it.

I was actually using a VAC 160iSE integrated amp before the XA-100.5 mono-blocks, and my speakers have similar specs (90 dB, 5 ohm versus your 90 dB, 4 ohm).

Switching to the XA-100.5 amps, the sound-stage opened up immensely. Not really surprising going from a tube stereo amp to SS mono-block amps.
Mating the Pass amps with an ARC Ref 5 preamp, the resolution of the highs and lows also became more extended and defined.

The only place I would give the edge to the VAC was in the midrange.
Though the Pass are quite warm and musical, the VAC had that touch of *magic* in the midrange, that fuzz on the peach quality, that only a tube amp can do.

The XA-100.5's do get quite warm after a couple of hours, but I wouldn't say they turned the listening room into a sauna. They aren't close to the hottest amp I've ever owned (BAT VK-75SE). However, they are quite a  bit warmer than the Jeff Rowland Model 6 mono's.

Another amp to consider, since you want tubes, but don't really have tube friendly speakers, is an Aesthetix Atlas.
A hybrid amp with 400 wpc into your 4 ohm load, but with a pair of 6SN7 tubes in the driver stage.
Just a thought.

Nice! jmcgrogan2-

at its price-point, the ARC Ref5 pre-amp is best in class.

Happy Listening!

Thanks very much for all the input, guys. Like jmcgrogan2, George and kdude66 , I am more and more of the thinking that a solid state amp is probably the way to go with these speakers. I've just been a tube guy for so long. However, great performance is great performance, no matter how one gets it.

The 100.5's have been recommended previously by at least half a dozen audio people who I truly respect, including a couple major audio reviewers that I discussed it with at Axpona. Now the question is waiting for some to appear for sale. I have been on the waiting list at Reno HiFi  quite a while for a pair of 100.5's. Lets hope that Mark is able to come through with some sooner than later. 

Mark at Reno is a great guy to work with. I bought my XA-100.5's from him.

I have noticed that Reno's used inventory has been "drying up" though.
I've been looking because I have thoughts of moving up to a XA-60.8/100.8.
Haven't seen much used stock in there though, mostly just demo's which are still quite pricey.

Keep your eye on HifiShark too!