Bart,
Well, I wanted to give Defender1844 a choice between tubes & s.s. I remain confident that the choices that I gave him for large wattage tube power amps will do the job. My confidence stems from the fact that I know of several fellow Apogee speaker owners who drive their speakers with tube power amps to very good effect. As you might know, Apogee speakers are very tough/demanding low-impedance loads but the 4 Ohm version speakers in the Apogee portfolio respond well to large wattage tube power amps.
Further, if you search A'gon you will see that Albert Porter is driving his Dali Megaline speakers with 2 pairs of VTL Ref 750 mono blocks to very good effect. The Dali Megalines are a hybrid ribbon-cone driver speaker that have every indication of being a tough load.
I believe that Defender1844's Andras would be served well by large wattage tube power amps.
Now, none of these large wattage tube power amps are cheap! That's for sure. Jay's advice to you was very good from the financial view-point - rather than spend a lot for the VTL mono that you were considering, he suggested that you buy a fine s.s. amp that could do the job for much less money. I believe that the VTL mono would have been very good as well; it's just that you would have been out of a lot more money!
In the end it depends on Defender1844's tastes - if he likes tubes & wants to stick to them, there are some large wattage tube amps out there that'll suffice. Looks like Defender1844 is a man of some means & these tube power amps could be within his reach.
If he would like to switch to s.s. both you & I have given him a very good choice.
I think that there are other very good ( & expensive) s.s. choices as well - Gryphon, Karan, FM Acoustics & Goldmund.
So, depends on his sonic preferences & how much he's willing to spend.
>> As previously stated, I have loved and used tubes all
>> my life and like you Bombay have a large collection of
>> the best NOS tubes available.
tube rolling with NOS tubes inside Ken's preamp is one mistake that I made - it never sounded as good with NOS tubes as it did with his factory-provided tubes. The NOS tubes, no matter how fine, were always to noisy, too fat in the bass, too rolled off in the treble, etc & I felt ruined the sound. It could be one reason why your Ultimate Mk2 never sounded as good as it should have?
I've been using Symphonic Line power amps since 2001 with my Signature Mk3 preamp. The bass has never been uncontrolled. I have never felt like complaining about the overall sonics.
FWIW. IMHO.
Well, I wanted to give Defender1844 a choice between tubes & s.s. I remain confident that the choices that I gave him for large wattage tube power amps will do the job. My confidence stems from the fact that I know of several fellow Apogee speaker owners who drive their speakers with tube power amps to very good effect. As you might know, Apogee speakers are very tough/demanding low-impedance loads but the 4 Ohm version speakers in the Apogee portfolio respond well to large wattage tube power amps.
Further, if you search A'gon you will see that Albert Porter is driving his Dali Megaline speakers with 2 pairs of VTL Ref 750 mono blocks to very good effect. The Dali Megalines are a hybrid ribbon-cone driver speaker that have every indication of being a tough load.
I believe that Defender1844's Andras would be served well by large wattage tube power amps.
Now, none of these large wattage tube power amps are cheap! That's for sure. Jay's advice to you was very good from the financial view-point - rather than spend a lot for the VTL mono that you were considering, he suggested that you buy a fine s.s. amp that could do the job for much less money. I believe that the VTL mono would have been very good as well; it's just that you would have been out of a lot more money!
In the end it depends on Defender1844's tastes - if he likes tubes & wants to stick to them, there are some large wattage tube amps out there that'll suffice. Looks like Defender1844 is a man of some means & these tube power amps could be within his reach.
If he would like to switch to s.s. both you & I have given him a very good choice.
I think that there are other very good ( & expensive) s.s. choices as well - Gryphon, Karan, FM Acoustics & Goldmund.
So, depends on his sonic preferences & how much he's willing to spend.
>> As previously stated, I have loved and used tubes all
>> my life and like you Bombay have a large collection of
>> the best NOS tubes available.
tube rolling with NOS tubes inside Ken's preamp is one mistake that I made - it never sounded as good with NOS tubes as it did with his factory-provided tubes. The NOS tubes, no matter how fine, were always to noisy, too fat in the bass, too rolled off in the treble, etc & I felt ruined the sound. It could be one reason why your Ultimate Mk2 never sounded as good as it should have?
I've been using Symphonic Line power amps since 2001 with my Signature Mk3 preamp. The bass has never been uncontrolled. I have never felt like complaining about the overall sonics.
FWIW. IMHO.