Amplification

[panda2rom]

Hi Ken, you selling those old triode amps ? (got them serviced now and then ?).

Make it happen Diapason, hear thee the call of the solid state gathering :)

i'm very curious to hear your speakers, i'll bring my lovely NAD 160a, and the ugly chineese "giant killer".

[Ken Moreland]

Hi Ken, you selling those old triode amps ? (got them serviced now and then ?

Sorry Panda, they're long gone , one still in Ireland and the Audion/300B was advertised on this forum for a long time and bought by a guy in Portugal. I was lucky as a Portuguese friend brought it as cabin baggage!! Those were the days.

[HiFiFan]

Wish I was there to loan you my Merrill Audio Veritas. Really love those amps. I thought I had heard about a Netherlands distributor but when I googled it I couldn't find it.

[Adrian]

I will admit I do not know much about SS amplifiers. So I will not be making any recommendations with respect to make / model etc, just a few suggestions.

However I would imagine picking up a SS amplifier at a affordable price should be easier than picking up a well regarded valve amplifier at a affordable price.

Things to consider might be...

1) Pre / power options,
2) Upgrade path through various different models, i.e. the option of trading in a 60W model 3 for a 100W model 5 for example, this could give you more flexibility if in the future you deem more power / less power is required etc
3) Suitability / compatibility with Sonus Faber etc ( SS amps already known to work well with your model speaker),
4) Desirability of the item so that in the event of trading it back in at a future date it will sell well, rather than just sitting in the second hand section forlorn and ignored, you don't want to have to keep dropping the price because it won't shift.
5) Aesthetics, it should look well, you don't want lots of black boxes everywhere, (well maybe you do, but you could tire of them soon enough). Subjective point not true in all cases of course.

There might be other members of the forum...who have very well regarded SS amps sitting under the bed unused, as they have switched to valves long ago. It might be worth chatting to the Cloney boys if they know Hi Fi Aficionados who have unused quality gear lying around and would be willing to part with the equipment etc.

I would suggest holding onto the Graaf amps until you have discovered a SS amp which ticks all the boxes. Only then give the Graafs the boot, or just hold onto them in case.

Some names I recall.... Sugden, Gamut, Pathos, Devialiet, Classe, Quad, Unison Research.... in fact I have a Unison Research CD player... and it is very very good.... I would even contemplate getting a UR hybrid SS amp just for fun / back up.

The Gamut seem to be particularly well regarded from what I have heard from previous owners. The beauty of Quad is that they have been around a long time and there are a whole range of models to chose from.

[Terry]

Some guff from 1966 and my solid state pride and joy


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[Fran]

she be a thing of beauty Terry.

[Maz65]

Thanks all. Somewhere in my head I'd written off solid state amps as "not for me", but as so often happens I'm once again being proved wrong. I'm conscious though that this is the first "other" amp I've used with the new speakers, so I don't want to do anything too hasty. Still, this is the fun part of the hobby, where improvements are tumbling over each other and it's all a joy.
Fran, it's interesting you mention the Nu Vista as there's one on the pre-owned section. I might need to get my hands on that for a while. TBH, even if I go with SS power amps, I can see myself putting a valve or two in the preamp or DAC section over time. You all know I secretly want a Lampi Big 7...
Gerry and GH, I didn't know there were any Parasound users locally, so I'm glad to hear there are a few others. Have you heard any of their other amps? I'd really like to hear the JC-1 monos. Threshold I know by name only (Threshold Stasis jumps to mind, but I'll need to google why!)
Pearse, delighted that all is well in Classé land and that your blushes were spared.

....what I can say..... ....finally ! ;)

I guess your Graaf sounds at their very best.
May I add some considerations if you want to "push" the Episas to their limits with SS ? :-)))))

[Diapason]

Max, I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts!!

[Maz65]

Max, I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts!!

No doubts :) ...following some personal considerations...

Imho we should start from the facts, and the facts are the measures. Next we can go for the second step, i.e. everybody personal taste in music presentation.
Keeping in mind IF you want to push the speaker to its limits, nothing to do with your satisfaction listening GRAAF amplifiers (even with a SS amp, I'll never sell them).

From an old discussion I make in the past times I was the Elipsas owner (this is valid for Stradivari too), my suggestion is to start from the Stereophile Elipsa Red Test (aka Cremona Elipsa in the States, and now Elipsa SE), which states:

"Though this is slightly lower than the specified 91dB, the shortfall is not important. While it will therefore require less of a voltage swing to play loud, the speaker is still a demanding load for the partnering amplifier, with an impedance magnitude that drops to 2.5 ohms throughout the upper bass (fig.1). There is also a punishing combination of 4 ohms magnitude and –50 ° electrical phase angle at 70Hz that will suck gobs of current from the amplifier."

Note that -50% phase angle could mean a load down to even 1ohm at 70hz, big load in the bass region and requires an amp that can almost double it's wattage for each halving of load impedance all the way down to 2 ohms.

Not all the amplifiers listed in previous posts can perform with these measures: your SF Elipsa Red to get the very best out of them demand an amp one that gives current all the way down to 1 ohm, and that means solid state BJT (bi-polar transistor) output stage that can almost keep doubling it's wattage down to at least 2 ohms if not 1 ohm. Mosfets cannot do the doubling act like BJT can, generally speaking of course.

Because of the theory, it is not surprising the Parasound sounds good with Elipsas, very good choice at the first shot ;) JC1 Monos are probably the best one.
Ayre, Levinsons (ML2 monoblocks, searched them for years), Krell EVO, many others keeping in mind the speaker's requisites in theory.

Good hunt.
If I remember well, but maybe I'm wrong, you are not using a preamplifier. Imho this should be mandatory before everything else.

[Diapason]

Thanks Max, that tallies a lot with what I was expecting. As soon as I saw the specs for those speakers I knew my amps weren't really the right match, and I assumed I'd need a new amp immediately. I suppose I was surprised by how good the GRAAFs actually sounded and found myself wondering if the specs told the whole story, but now I've heard proper muscle I'm absolutely back to thinking that I need to find something with really good current delivery that can deal with those low impedances and difficult phase angles. Basically, I think the specs tell quite a lot of the story here.

I actually have a Krell FPB300 on loan from a friend this week, and while I can't do a side-by-side comparison because the Parasound has moved on, it's been quite interesting seeing how they compare (with all the usual caveats of poor sonic memory, etc.) Off the bat, the Krell sounds cleaner and punchier than the Parasound, but probably doesn't have the same tonal balance, and can give a little bit of glare that I wasn't getting with the Parasound. Interestingly, I thought the bass from the Parasound was deeper (if not as punchy) and I wasn't expecting that. At the moment (and I've only had 1 decent session with the Krell) I think I'd say that I *enjoyed* the Parasound more, even if the Krell shades it in a few areas. I just wish the JC1 monos weren't quite so expensive, because I think that would be a really good choice for me and for my tastes. Oh well, we'll listen to more stuff and see how we get on.

You're right about the lack of preamp, and for a long time I was adamant I was going to get a good pre next. Now I think new power amps will have to come first, and the pre can follow. Maybe I'll buy them together if they right thing comes along, but that would require an unexpected windfall of cash that seems unlikely!!