The Best Tube Amplifiers vs Spectron ?

It's quite interesting that several posters have found a SS (class D no less) that seems to stand up with some of the top designs. I have heard the Sigfreids on several occasions and found them to be excellent.

But looking over StereoMojo's review, James Darby provides some insight into why one may want to choose this amp, and why in some circumstances, another may be a better choice.

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FACT A: If you have speakers that are legitimately very efficient with high sensitivity (those specs are dodgy as well), you do not need these amps. Or probably even one of them. Examples are single-horn types or full-range models like those by Coincident which have good sensitivity and benign, amp friendly impendence curves.

FACT B: If you have 100 or 200 wpc amp (specs are tricky here, too!) driving rather inefficient speakers with impendence curves that range all over the place and you listen at moderately loud to loud levels to music other than harpsichord solos in a largish room, you are probably listening to large amount of distortion and/or clipping.
The size of the speaker does not matter. Some small speakers (like Brit monitors) are notoriously hard to drive.

I believe emailist is right on the money. I have a Spectron amp with Gallo 3.1 speakers. Beautiful match. Would I use the Spectron amp with, for example, Wilson speakers...not sure. From what I have read BAT tube amps may be the way to go.

I see many people with planar speakers who love the Spectrons. Must be a good match. Teajay, you might want to check them out in your system.

One other note to Spectron owners. Check out the levitation isolation devices that Simon sells.

" I can see what musicians would like about the Spectrons as they are very accurate. To each his own. Enjoy!"

Thank you Bruce. You are probably right why musicians, recording engineers, speakers designers (at least ones listed on Spectron web site like Gallo and von Schweikert) and other professionals like Spectrons.

I would add only avid concert goers like myself because as Wayne Donnelly so correctly (for my ears) wrote:

"The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."

And in no way I was comparing Spectrons to class A ss amplifiers. I am a (mostly) "toob" man and I always believed that the best tube amp ONLY can approximate the magic and sweetness of real unamplified acoustic music

"......To each his own. Enjoy!" Yes!

Mike

I had the Spectron Musician 3 in my system (with Maggies), and it sounded a bit bright. Maybe I didn't give it enough time to break in before I got rid of it. Also, I had a SS preamp at the time, maybe if I had my current Cary Preamp there would have been a better match. It replaced some Innersound monoblocks there were AMAZING. Fast, tons of bass, and extended highs. With the exception of the current amps I have, the Innersounds (now Sanders Sound) were the best amps I have ever heard with Maggies. Although, the Brystons are great too.

It really is a synergy thing with amps and speakers especially. I was very excited to get some McIntosh 501's a little more than a year ago, and they sounded aweful when I put them in my system. I tried different cables of all types, to no effect. I called McIntosh (great and very helpful) the guys asked what type of speaker I had, then said try them on another speaker to see if there was anything wrong before sending them back.

A buddy has some B&W Nautilus', so I hauled those bad boys over to his house, and hooked them up, and man, his system never sounded so good. In fact, those amps are at his house to this day in a great sounding system.

I guess the point is, between subjectivity in preference, and nuances in differnt equipment, there is never going to be a 'best anything'.

Well except for Magnepan speakers!!

" ...Compared against the 'best' tube amps? There are a lot of tube amps out there. Did you listen to all of them :) ??"

Hello Athmaspere,

No, I did not. However, Wayne Donnelley being so many years music reviewer and audio equipment reviewer probably did enough listening to conclude:

"The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."

All my life I used tube amplifiers and I was surprised that its not only I who found Spectrons so life-like - similar and even better then the limited amount of the best tubes amps I owned and/or auditioned. That's all.

Thank you.

Mike