AudioCircle
Industry Circles => Spatial Audio => Topic started by: Jprod on 16 Jun 2023, 10:45 pm
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Hello. We are all a little crazy in this hobby and we love variety and swapping gear out. I was just curious what amps and quantity everyone is using with their beloved spatial speakers
I currently have 2 tube amps - decware Tori jr v2 and a Dennis had fire bottle kt 88 sep with my x5s
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I use monoblocks, so I chose 2 solid state.
I only use one type/model of amp, however. I have other amps, but I'm happy with the one type/model of amp on the M3 Sapphires.
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I’m a simple man and use just one amp: An LTA Ultralinear Plus.
My Spatials are the M5 Sapphires. May they live long and their offspring prosper.
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What is our definition of amp?
Integrated? AV Receiver? Chip? Plate?
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I have the M4 Sapphires and run an Accuphase E-380 integrated, sounds amazing!
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X3'S with hands down the best sounding badass 300b stereo amp. Was extremely fortunate to snag a Don Sachs 300b amp.
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M6 owner and a newly acquired Parasound JC5. Pretty blown away by this amplifier. The Spatials are giving me detail like no tomorrow.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=253830)
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I’ve swapped in others and they all sound great through the M4 but the full time rig for now is PS Audio M1200’s
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M3 turbo s powered by Buckeye Hypex NC252MP here
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M6 owner and a newly acquired Parasound JC5. Pretty blown away by this amplifier. The Spatials are giving me detail like no tomorrow.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=253830)
I have heard great things about the JC5, def one amp I would like to hear. What pre are you using?
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I have heard great things about the JC5, def one amp I would like to hear. What pre are you using?
Parasound JC2 BP.
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I am running my M3 Sapphires with a Rogue Stereo 100 Dark. I think it is a good match and sounds great.
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M3 turbo s powered by Buckeye Hypex NC252MP here
My M3 Turbo S speakers are powered by a Vinnie Rossi LIO DHT integrated amp.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=211666)
George
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My M3 Turbos are running off a DIY Folsom Chip Amp.
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M3 Turbo S fed by Luxman L-590AXll.
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Audion Super Sterling KT150 powering my M4 Sapphires.
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M3 Sapphires with Octave V70 Class A. I'm hoping this system will be with me in my afterlife :D
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=223799)
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=217892)
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I've used a few amps over a few years now. All worked well and all 200-400 watts and SS. Power cords could make or break each amp, so I had to try them put one by one. My current amp I pulled out from my stock is the Mark Levinson 532H with the Seltech Ruby power cord The reproduction is just 1st rate. But for the money, the Pangea 9SE Mkii is wonderful on any high-current amp or power conditioner, or power strip.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=253874)
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I have M3 Turbos and can easily switch between several amps (McIntosh MC 75's, Marantz MA-5's and a First Watt SIT 3) and frequently do just that as well as use different room placement. The MA 5's have the most headroom by far FWIW, but the SIT 3 is the amp that gets the most use and The MC 75's get used least. The SIT 3 sounds best to me overall, all other things being held constant.
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M5 Sapphires fed by a Roksan Caspian M2 power amp. I'm in the process of replacing my old Primaluna Prologue 3 preamp with a DeHavilland Mercury + a Burson buffer to compensate for the impedance mismatch (i know this will make some of you cringe).
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May not be terribly appropriate but will toss this out here.
I started with 2.3watt SET amp on my X3s. Sound was wonderful! I am old so my ears are not as good as they once were. When I turned the volume up enough to hear ppp passages on classical performances the amp would run out of steam before reaching the fff and ffff passages. I tried 300watt per channel monoblock GAN amps and they did a great job coupled with a Decware CSP2+ preamp. I had some tube sound along with the generally good sound of the GAN amps. On a whim, because there were a couple of annoying sounds on hard struck piano notes and also on massed violins at high volumes, I got a pair of Burson Timekeeper 3X GT monoblocks. (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=new+record+day+burson+timekeepers) WOW! These are 180watts/channel BUT the first 30 watts are Class A. These fixed the niggling problems I had been hearing but, even with the CSP2+ preamp, I was really missing the SET tube sound. So, after reading about all the recommendations related to Spatial speakers, I called Cloud and now have Valhalla on order. I am assuming that will fix my "tube fetish"! As always another problem has jumped up! Now I have a wonderful pair of monoblock amps that need a new, loving place of residence!! They are retail $3999 and less than one month old and I have them listed on USAudiomart for $3K shipped with PayPal F&F pay. Open to offers. joeclazenby@juno.com
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Don Sachs Kootenay 120 with my X-5s. This amp just sounds wonderful through these speakers.
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that is what I am hoping for with the Valhalla. I grabbed the Bursons because no waiting and Ron on New Recod Day had dubbed them his favorite solid state amps and demoed them with X4s.
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that is what I am hoping for with the Valhalla. I grabbed the Bursons because no waiting and Ron on New Recod Day had dubbed them his favorite solid state amps and demoed them with X4s.
You will definitely get great sound with the Valhalla or, at least, I do.
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I power my Lumina L2s with a ss Ayre AX-5/20 integrated. Speakers do not need that much power, but sound great with it.
FWIW, I do have a tube dac (Lampi Atlantic). I like the balance that comes with mixing ss and tubes.
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I used to use a Primaluna Dialogue HP Premium but switched to a Don Sachs Valhalla Integrated a little over a year ago. Great amp!
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I'm probably using one of, if not the, oldest and cheapest amps with my X3s while I wait for new amps: an early '90s Naim Nait 2 fed by a Lumin D2. Despite being 30 years in my possession, not yet serviced and by its nature a modest amp, it's core attributes still shine through and show why early Naits have a cult following.
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Glad to see the love given to the Don Sachs equipment. I'm one of just a very few to have obtained a recent DS 300B Stereo amp. It mates stunningly well with my X5's, the DS Pre, and the Acapella III streamer. The first really great amp I've owned.
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After yesterday's visit from FedEx, I'm now running a Naim NSC222/NAP250 combination.
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M6 owner and a newly acquired Parasound JC5. Pretty blown away by this amplifier. The Spatials are giving me detail like no tomorrow.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=253830)
I just bought a JC5 and the scheduled delivery date is Friday, 6/30/23! I’ll be honest, I slept on Parasound by getting caught up in all these other brands that were much more expensive. I also got consumed with the class D offerings, but hadn’t settled on a power amp to replace my Luxman L-509x integrated, that I sold recently, until I decided to buy the JC5. Nice to know that your solid state preamp and power amp combo sounds good with your Spatials because most Spatial owners seem to have tubes somewhere in the chain!
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I just bought a JC5 and the scheduled delivery date is Friday, 6/30/23! I’ll be honest, I slept on Parasound by getting caught up in all these other brands that were much more expensive. I also got consumed with the class D offerings, but hadn’t settled on a power amp to replace my Luxman L-509x integrated, that I sold recently, until I decided to buy the JC5. Nice to know that your solid state preamp and power amp combo sounds good with your Spatials because most Spatial owners seem to have tubes somewhere in the chain!
I'm so impressed with this amplifier and I would be lying if I didn't say that the Jc2 BP pre-amp is even more impressive. I kept hearing about the depth of the soundstage and thought how the heck is this going to sound going deeper than the front wall, but the soundstage actually came forward from the plain of the speakers. At times getting holographic. I'm so serious about getting the most of this amp that I bit the bullet and bought some pricey room treatment. The bass is excellent to say the least. Warm, great voicing. Natural sounding detail. Zero fidelity and Audio excellence really nailed the review of the amplifier. Hope you love it as much as I do.
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I'm so impressed with this amplifier and I would be lying if I didn't say that the Jc2 BP pre-amp is even more impressive. I kept hearing about the depth of the soundstage and thought how the heck is this going to sound going deeper than the front wall, but the soundstage actually came forward from the plain of the speakers. At times getting holographic. I'm so serious about getting the most of this amp that I bit the bullet and bought some pricey room treatment. The bass is excellent to say the least. Warm, great voicing. Natural sounding detail. Zero fidelity and Audio excellence really nailed the review of the amplifier. Hope you love it as much as I do.
I can’t wait to get mine and experience everything I have read or saw in all the YouTube video reviews and forums. I saw both reviews from Audio Excellence and Zero Fidelity and they all praised this amp. No one has said anything really negative about the JC5, so it must be an incredible bang for the buck! I’ll be using my Holo Audio Serene KTE preamp with it. Darren Myers, former PS Audio engineer/designer, joined Parasound with a VP title recently. He is a very smart guy and a music enthusiast, so I expect good things in the future having Darren and John Curl working together. Greg Weaver posted a video on YouTube with the new CEO of Parasound, David Sherrif, discussing the future of Parasound. It was a good interview.
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I've seen that interview. It's pretty cool that Parasound will be making smaller mono blocks. Great choice.You should be in good shape with the pre-amp.
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I just bought a JC5 and the scheduled delivery date is Friday, 6/30/23! I’ll be honest, I slept on Parasound by getting caught up in all these other brands that were much more expensive. I also got consumed with the class D offerings, but hadn’t settled on a power amp to replace my Luxman L-509x integrated, that I sold recently, until I decided to buy the JC5. Nice to know that your solid state preamp and power amp combo sounds good with your Spatials because most Spatial owners seem to have tubes somewhere in the chain!
The reason a lot of us seem to have tubes is that the x3 / x5 with the 97db 8 ohm sensitivity gives us that flexibility. I had a parasoound a21 a while ago and found it to strident and somewhat harsh. I’m sure the jc5 is much better than the a21 but for me the tubes give my that sweet luscious sound without the sibilance and brittleness of some ss amps.
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I can’t wait to get mine and experience everything I have read or saw in all the YouTube video reviews and forums. I saw both reviews from Audio Excellence and Zero Fidelity and they all praised this amp. No one has said anything really negative about the JC5, so it must be an incredible bang for the buck! I’ll be using my Holo Audio Serene KTE preamp with it. Darren Myers, former PS Audio engineer/designer, joined Parasound with a VP title recently. He is a very smart guy and a music enthusiast, so I expect good things in the future having Darren and John Curl working together. Greg Weaver posted a video on YouTube with the new CEO of Parasound, David Sherrif, discussing the future of Parasound. It was a good interview.
John Curl designs good gear and has years of experience, like Dave Belles, Jeff Rowland, Bascom H King, and Nelson Pass, Mark Levinson (the man) with 100 years of experience between them.
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The reason a lot of us seem to have tubes is that the x3 / x5 with the 97db 8 ohm sensitivity gives us that flexibility. I had a parasoound a21 a while ago and found it to strident and somewhat harsh. I’m sure the jc5 is much better than the a21 but for me the tubes give my that sweet luscious sound without the sibilance and brittleness of some ss amps.
I agree that SS can be a tad much with some CD's, but vinyl is pretty much excellent. Tubes do? have an overall more forgiving presentation.
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John Curl designs good gear and has years of experience, like Dave Belles, Jeff Rowland, Bascom H King, and Nelson Pass, Mark Levinson (the man) with 100 years of experience between them.
All the heavy hitters in the industry we have so much to be thankful for. The Jc2 BP pre-amp was made by Mark Levinson. btw Mr Big. I did reach out to Spatial and left a message. Might be a minute till they really get back on their feet and contact me? I will let you know.
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John Curl designs good gear and has years of experience, like Dave Belles, Jeff Rowland, Bascom H King, and Nelson Pass, Mark Levinson (the man) with 100 years of experience between them.
These heavy weights have made some great gear and very reliable! That’s a big deal to me.
The reason a lot of us seem to have tubes is that the x3 / x5 with the 97db 8 ohm sensitivity gives us that flexibility. I had a parasoound a21 a while ago and found it to strident and somewhat harsh. I’m sure the jc5 is much better than the a21 but for me the tubes give my that sweet luscious sound without the sibilance and brittleness of some ss amps.
Yes, I am very familiar with the X series. I owned the X5s and paired them with Prima Luna EVO400 preamp and amp combo for a while. I went from SS to tubes and back to SS, then sold the X5s. Tubes did bring a beautiful holographic presentation and velvety bloom!
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I try not to argue about someone's individual tastes. If someone doesn't have information, I might provide it but SS vs Tubes is taste and convenience factors. There isn't a "right" choice.
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I don't have the X3's anymore but when I did, these were the amps I used with them:
First Watt BA3
First Watt Aleph J
Don Sachs "baby-Kootenay"
Dennis Had Inspire MB14 SEP Monoblocks
Almarro A318B SET
TAL Korneff Type 45 SET
Elekit TU 8233 2a3/300b SET
Sun Valley 211/845 SET
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Do you still have all of these amps?
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You should be in good shape with the pre-amp.
The Parasound JC5 arrived today and it is insanely good and great value for performance!
The user manual does not mention any information on the input gain settings. I found a few forums with Parasound owners claiming Parasound advises to set the input gain to max.
Where is your input gain set on the JC5?
Thanks
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Do you still have all of these amps?
I do. Some people like to tube roll, I like to “amp roll” :thumb:
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The Parasound JC5 arrived today and it is insanely good and great value for performance!
The user manual does not mention any information on the input gain settings. I found a few forums with Parasound owners claiming Parasound advises to set the input gain to max.
Where is your input gain set on the JC5?
Thanks
I have my gain on the amp and pre-amp at 50%. If the amp gets to loud to quickly (no real usable range) then back off on the gain.
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I don't have the X3's anymore but when I did, these were the amps I used with them:
First Watt BA3
First Watt Aleph J
Don Sachs "baby-Kootenay"
Dennis Had Inspire MB14 SEP Monoblocks
Almarro A318B SET
TAL Korneff Type 45 SET
Elekit TU 8233 2a3/300b SET
Sun Valley 211/845 SET
I really think you should sell me the Almarro 318b.
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I have my gain on the amp and pre-amp at 50%. If the amp gets to loud to quickly (no real usable range) then back off on the gain.
Got it…. Thanks
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I agree that SS can be a tad much with some CD's, but vinyl is pretty much excellent. Tubes do? have an overall more forgiving presentation.
I use all SS with my system but I grew up on tubes so that sound is always in my head, my SS system sounds as good so tubes and I parted ways but I still love tubes. I had a huge vinyl collection but sold it all in the early '90s to a collector out of NY. Never looked back. Nor feel the need to sonic wise and I am a vinyl person since the time I was 10 years of age the collection starts and that was 1961 when my dad purchased 2 LPs for my birthday and I never stopped as I got a job and made my own money the collection continued to grow till 1989. Vinyl by the late early 70s was so poorly made, thin, noisy, warped, etc, oil prices went way up thus the cost of making vinyl was impacted so vinyl was made more cheaply, and a lot of reused vinyl was used. Catalogs of artists back LP's were pulled so lots of LP titles were no more until the release of a new format the CD then all the backlog titles came back into production and that kept going year after year. One LP sold in a month was more than all the LP's sold in a year today. One LP could sell 3 million, some 10 million, and a million copies was considered a major seller. Today I have 1,500 CDs and box sets from the 1930s to the present. Just some of my collections.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=254255)
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A Don Sachs Kootenay 120 has given my x-5s their best sound. A rare time of a combination perhaps being greater than the individual pieces.
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I use all SS with my system but I grew up on tubes so that sound is always in my head, my SS system sounds as good so tubes and I parted ways but I still love tubes. I had a huge vinyl collection but sold it all in the early '90s to a collector out of NY. Never looked back. Nor feel the need to sonic wise and I am a vinyl person since the time I was 10 years of age the collection starts and that was 1961 when my dad purchased 2 LPs for my birthday and I never stopped as I got a job and made my own money the collection continued to grow till 1989. Vinyl by the late early 70s was so poorly made, thin, noisy, warped, etc, oil prices went way up thus the cost of making vinyl was impacted so vinyl was made more cheaply, and a lot of reused vinyl was used. Catalogs of artists back LP's were pulled so lots of LP titles were no more until the release of a new format the CD then all the backlog titles came back into production and that kept going year after year. One LP sold in a month was more than all the LP's sold in a year today. One LP could sell 3 million, some 10 million, and a million copies was considered a major seller. Today I have 1,500 CDs and box sets from the 1930s to the present. Just some of my collections.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=254255)
I'm with you Mr Big. I have a bigger CD library vs vinyl. Listening to mostly classical, it comes off very very well on CD.
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I really think you should sell me the Almarro 318b.
That thing is a beast. 1100 volts needed to drive those tubes! But the sound is pretty spectacular.
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Thanks for all the responses. Nice to see what everyone is using to drive their spatials. For those of you that do have more than one , do you swap out the amps or have an amp selector box ? Just curious
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Thanks for all the responses. Nice to see what everyone is using to drive their spatials. For those of you that do have more than one , do you swap out the amps or have an amp selector box ? Just curious
I keep my spare amps in my finished basement and swap out to the main system every few months.
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That thing is a beast. 1100 volts needed to drive those tubes! But the sound is pretty spectacular.
Yes. Sorry I sold mine.
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X5's driven by a Linear Tube Audio Ultralinear Plus.
Tubes...
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I have the X2 with REL subs and use an Esoteric F-07 integrated 90% of the time - the other 10% is an AudioValve Assistent 100MK2. Both work well. I also tried a Legacy Audio i.V2 but it lasted only a week or so LOL.
tony
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M3 Saphires driven by Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra and Schiit Freya+ amd Wilsenton R8 integrated amp
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My X-5's go extremely well with my AGD Audion Mono-blocks.
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I'm running my M3 Triode Masters with a couple of Schiit Vidars as monoblocks (SS) into a MiniDSP SHD.
While the DIRAC and room correction is cool/interesting, I honestly prefer my M3 Turbo S running through a Marantz 4300. I've A/B tested that marantz amp against the VR LIO, and the 1974 relic holds up.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255308)
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255309)
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255310)
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255311)
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Sparial Audio X4 Premium
Benchmark AHB2
Benchmark DAC3 B
Benchmark LA4
Sangean HDT-20 HD AM/FM
Oppo UDP-205 (feeds digital stream to DAC)
LG OLED77C2AUA
Panamax M5300-PM
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Tyson, I'd really like to try a 45 amp with my X3s but think 1.5 watts or so might not be enough. I know it depends on many factors like room size, type of music, desired listening level. Did the 45 amp give you enough? I listen to jazz, small group, big band, vocals.
I'm currently using either a DS Valhalla or a Dennis Had Inspire 300B.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255374)
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=255375)
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Tyson, I'd really like to try a 45 amp with my X3s but think 1.5 watts or so might not be enough. I know it depends on many factors like room size, type of music, desired listening level. Did the 45 amp give you enough? I listen to jazz, small group, big band, vocals.
I'm currently using either a DS Valhalla or a Dennis Had Inspire 300B.
Based on my system, 1.5 watts was not enough. Neither was the 3-4 watts a 2a3 gives. A 300b amp with 6-8 watts was the lowest I would recommend.
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Thanks Tyson, that's what I figured, good to get the verification. I don't need to spend money on the experiment 8)
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I'm currently using either a DS Valhalla or a Dennis Had Inspire 300B.
Can you say a bit about the differences you're hearing between these two amps?
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I have difficulty putting what I hear to words, I will say they both have great soundstage depth and width. Both have holographic imaging, which to me means solid and well defined instruments and voices placed within the soundstage, with lifelike space between them. The Valhalla has more drive, sounds more powerful and energetic. I prefer the 300B much of the time for it's delicacy and nuance, how it brings out subtle details that I'm aware of in some of the music I listen to. I think which one a person would prefer depends a lot on what they listen to. I could list some jazz tracks that are good examples but the music won't appeal to a lot of people and they won't get what I'm talking about.
At Pacific Audio Fest I was in the Spatial room early on Friday and Saturday with the X4s and the DS 300B mono blocks. There were two Spatial people (not Clayton or Cloud) plus Don Sachs. They were accommodating and gracious, and it was just wonderful talking to them. Don let me play a couple favorite tracks. There were about four other guys like me in there for a listen. I could tell they were not really into the music I played. Next one of the other guys asked to hear an Alice Coltrane track, I for sure got into that, but it was very different than what I played. Next Don wanted us to hear a track from Air Hadouk Trio which sounded amazing to me, many subtleties, filled with tone and texture. Way different than what I usually listen to but just full of the qualities I'm talking about. I'm listening to that album now and I really like a lot of the tracks.
Guess I veered off and didn't answer your question with the second paragraph. Hopefully you find it interesting and get some insight into what I'm talking about.