tube amp recommendations for Watt/Puppys

I have Wilson 5.1's and used a VT 100mk2. I then tried a ML 335. Only then did I realize the ARC amp, as good as it is, cannot drive the Wilson's to their full potential. Other than the last bit of bloom and hall ambience the ML 335 was vastly, and I mean vastly, better. The ML 335 has a smooth tonal balance that works well with the Wilson's tendency to be a little overly analytical. The bass control is beyond words, the ARC was no where near the 335. After years of trying to tame the Wilson's tendency to be a little bright with massed strings I settled on the CAT Ultimate, the 335 and Transparent Cables. You'll need a massive tube amp with all the hassle that comes with it, why not try the 335 or 336 first? Of course the pre amp you have will influence things but you don't need a tube amp to tame the Wilson's.

I partly disagree with the above post. The Wilson WP's speaker sound much better with tubes than with solid sate. The key is that they like a lot of power. On the WP's, I have compared the Levinson, Classe and Krell gear head to head with the ARC VT200 / VTM200 / Ref 600 and the tubes were better in almost every way. The solid state did not have the harmonic texture of the tubes and seemed to distort at the higher frequencies. While the ARC gear was not as quiet as the Levinson, I still preferred the ARC gear.

On another note, I went over to a friend's house about a month ago and heard the WP 6's driven by the ML Reference 33's. It was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunatley, it would be difficult to compare that listening experience to my A/B with the ARC's.

I have also heard the BAT VK-150SE's on the WP's and they too, are a wonderful match. They are extremely quiet and beautiful sounding. They run class a so do not let the 150 watt rating fool you.

The best amps I have heard on WP's are the Atma-sphere MA2 MKII.2's. They are amazing but even used are out of your price range.

Good luck... it should be fun!

As suggested above, you need huevos. Esp, to get orchestral dynamics and to couple the P's with the W's on the V. The best results (caution: to my ears) with WP 6's were in descending order, Atmasphere-2 (as above), Lamm, Ref 600, Mesa Baron in pentode mode.

Don't know if this helps any.
Good luck!

the ONLY time i've been really impressed with the sound of watts/puppies was when i heard 'em driven by nagra vpa's. FWIW, dave wilson uses the nagra tube monoblocks and a pl-p pre with his personal watts/puppies (he told me that at ces-2000). while the nagra's have a msrp of a little over $12k, they can be found discounted (new) for around your max, or less. -kelly

VAC gear works great with the speakers. If you can do mono amps the better. Remember to keep in mind the amps only reproduce what comes down the audio chain. Frankly a CAT Pre-amp makes a amazing difference.