[Lkdog]

You should call Klaus to be sure, but the Candelas, as noted, have a rather high output impedance and work quite well with the Stratos amps.
If you wish to design by the numbers, then stay below 1K output impedance for a minimum 10/1 ratio.
Some prefer much higher-like 50/1.

My tube preamp output impedance is nearly 2K and the gain is 15db and it works great with the Mono Extremes.

[lazydays]

Hey Mike,

You are amazing,  hehehehe.  Thanks so much for your efforts here.  Absolutely cool.

Well,  as for the data and specs,  I mostly base them myself on what I got from Germany.  It's true,  however,  that we optimized the design quite a bit over the past 2 years,  and some of the changes obviously effected the specs as well.  18 k input seems a bit on the high side,  however,  I'd subscribe to that with the current versions of the amp before I'd go with 10 k,  which is a good thing anyway.  The biggie here is definitely the fact of the superb output gain of the Stratos.  In that regard it's a wet dream.

As for the output power itself on the extremes,  all I can say is that we put a 1 ohm dummy load on a mono,  pushed it up about 80-90 %,  and measured somewhere over 1000 Watts  while being completely stabile ,  flatlining as a matter of fact.  It was incredible and also extremely hot,  hehehe.

Anyway,  Mike,  thanks again,

Klaus

that's why the plaster is cracking in the living room, and the cat needs a hearing aid!
gary

[lazydays]

Now I only have to *decide* on one  

Hehe... so many choices and many of them very good. I have heard the Stratos paired with an AI M3, Odyssey Tempest, Goldpoint passive, Radii, Norh ACA, Transcendent Grounded Grid, Symphonic Line Der Erlectung (sp?) and a little Musical Fidelity X-Pre.

Like everything else in this hobby it comes down to synergy and personal taste. I suggest giving Klaus a call and discussing your system with him. He is very knowlegable about which pieces will compliment each other.

Enjoy the journey.

Mike

I've had my mono SE's behind everything from a B&K tuner/preamp to the Candella. If I were to not have the Candella, I would be using a Conrad Johnson. The Quicksilver is another pretty good one, but not as refined as the CJ or as forcefull as the Candella.
You gotta spend at least $3500 to compare with the Candella, and now think it's gonna take $5K or more to run with the SE's. Might add that you can take those $10K Krells out of the picture right away, cause they wont run with the big dogs.
gary