Tccaux, listening to your Snells with a variety of amps is a fantastic opportunity. If the Snells are keepers (I think they should be), you are doing exactly the right thing. I would only encourage you to approach it with an open mind. "Neutrality" means different things to different listeners. I personally think the Snells are definitely closer to neutral than not; MY definition of neutral. But, I think a lot of audiophiles (perhaps most) would think they are more on the romantic side of things given their very full bodied sound, and dense images. I am not familiar with the mc stuff you have listened to so far, but can't encourage you enough to listen to them with tube amps if you have the opportunity at the dealer. Tubes don't have to mean too dark and with rolled off highs. You are going to the trouble of going through this, I think you owe it to yourself to experience what tubes can do with these speakers. You may decide that it's not for you, or that you can't deal with the hassles (heat, etc.), but you may just be blown away.
Build a new system around pair of Snell Alll's?
Due to setting up a second home (in Austin), I have the opportunity to set up a new system around my Snell Alll's. Fortunately, it will be a bigger room and I do plan to make it a HT system although my main interest is to max stereo listening. I've had them on a B&K AVR707 and really enjoyed the clarity and neutrality I got. But feel the staging was too shallow which crunched the imaging. Without having any real tube experience I think I may be a SS listener at heart. The "peach fuzz" feel of tubes I've heard described seems unappealing. What I am convinced of is need to get much more power to the Snells. I know there's a ton of variables here but appreciate any suggestions from those who may be familiar with these beauties. Thanks
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- 41 posts total
- 41 posts total