I own the Forte IIIs. I’ve mated them with both SS and vacuum tubes. They reveal differences in amplification and source well.
On the solid state end, they sounded way better TO ME with a musical and powerful Creek Evolution 100, but a bit boring with the revered NAD M22. I chalked that up to synergy and musicality of the amp. The Creek is Class A for the first 20 or so watts and then has Class G up to 170 watts into 4 ohm (can’t recall its 8 ohm figure).
On the tube end, I pair them with a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP, Elekit 300B, and an EL34 kit amp. I have a large room and enjoy the power of the PrimaLuna with the Fortes. But if I’m heading off to the audiophile desert island and could take one tube amp it would be the Elekit 300B.
Your your sounds perfect fir the Elekit but that amp, while capable of spectacular things, is not laden with features and to get the best from it you need to do the upgrade options for transformers and caps.
If if I were you I’d be prepared for unexpected results with SS. That doesn’t mean you can’t get great sound with SS. Would you believe the low end slam from an 8 watt amp sounds better and more realistic than when I pushed hundreds of clean watts at the Fortes with the NAD M22? And boy that M22 is a great amp!
The good news is you have a fun journey ahead that only your ears in your room can be the jury!
For my ears, I can’t run the Fortes without tubes in the chain somewhere. A SS amp can be great but I need a tube DAC or tube phono to get to Oz.
The Forte IIIs ate wonderful. If you feel something’s missing I think experiment until you find it. I heard a ton of stuff at Axpona and in my view the Fortes can sound spellbinding with the right setup.
On the solid state end, they sounded way better TO ME with a musical and powerful Creek Evolution 100, but a bit boring with the revered NAD M22. I chalked that up to synergy and musicality of the amp. The Creek is Class A for the first 20 or so watts and then has Class G up to 170 watts into 4 ohm (can’t recall its 8 ohm figure).
On the tube end, I pair them with a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP, Elekit 300B, and an EL34 kit amp. I have a large room and enjoy the power of the PrimaLuna with the Fortes. But if I’m heading off to the audiophile desert island and could take one tube amp it would be the Elekit 300B.
Your your sounds perfect fir the Elekit but that amp, while capable of spectacular things, is not laden with features and to get the best from it you need to do the upgrade options for transformers and caps.
If if I were you I’d be prepared for unexpected results with SS. That doesn’t mean you can’t get great sound with SS. Would you believe the low end slam from an 8 watt amp sounds better and more realistic than when I pushed hundreds of clean watts at the Fortes with the NAD M22? And boy that M22 is a great amp!
The good news is you have a fun journey ahead that only your ears in your room can be the jury!
For my ears, I can’t run the Fortes without tubes in the chain somewhere. A SS amp can be great but I need a tube DAC or tube phono to get to Oz.
The Forte IIIs ate wonderful. If you feel something’s missing I think experiment until you find it. I heard a ton of stuff at Axpona and in my view the Fortes can sound spellbinding with the right setup.