Frontier-
look into ARC, Conrad Johnson and Rogue Audio for your tube needs. Keep me posted and Happy Listening!
look into ARC, Conrad Johnson and Rogue Audio for your tube needs. Keep me posted and Happy Listening!
Tube amplifier to power Sonus Faber speakers?
Hi Frontier1, your speakers though advertised at nominal 4ohms, is not showing the whole picture. As the lab test results show in the link, they have an amp hungry impedance with -phase angle load of 1.7ohms in the bass. They maybe efficient but they are a hard load. This to me says if you want to get the very best out of them, especially in the bass, you need an amp that gives good current, the ability to almost double it's watts down to 2ohms. EG: 50w into 8ohms 100w into 4ohms 200w into 2ohms These amps are good solid state with BJT (bipolar) output stages (not mosfet)This is also why even good P/P tube amps will wimp out a little down low, even with 4ohm taps. http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC8QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfect-sense.se%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F11%2FSF_Olympica-II_Hifi_News_2014.pdf&ei=JN58VIbNE4bc8AXerICgCA&usg=AFQjCNH3FtXaUGr8-3B3--LdKjP2VA7QYA&bvm=bv.80642063,d.dGc Cheers George |
Historical there have been a lot of people who like to match McIntosh with SF speakers. I am not a McIntosh guy, so cannot recommend anything specific. Personally, I would lean towards Conrad Johnson or maybe the big Cary amps with the Olympica. I have not heard anyone of them with those speakers, however. I have original Cremona and I drive them with a relatively neutral SS amp (Levinson 432) and a tube pre-amp (Cary SLP-05). You should consider that option also. |