Amp and pre for Aerial 10ts

I have Aerial 10Ts coupled with Sim Audio's W5 power amp and their P5 pre. Love the sound but it requires a lot of break in time for the electronics. I suspect that the W5 and P5 has a bit more power and resolution than your setup.

Mjdraper, I used to own a Moon W-5 with my 10T's. The W-5 is an excellent amp in it's own right and in some ways was a real eye opening demonstrating the vast differences in amplifiers in general.

However, it seemed to me that the W-5 simply could not muster enough power and control for the bass and mid-bass regions of the 10T. But I could not put my finger on it. I assumed that the 10T's just demanded more juice.

Aside from the bass, it was far superior sonically to my previous amp, a BAT VK-500. But the VK-500's bass was substantially more powerful and controlling than the W-5.

I sold the W-5 and moved on. The next two amps confirmed my speculation regarding the W-5 not having enough power and control for the 10T's bass regions.

Then about 6 months ago, I stumbled across a review on the W-5 and P-5 products on SimAdudio's web-site. The reviewer was Peter Moncrief of IAR and as he praised the W-5 and P-5 for their overall excellent sonic attributes, he described in detail the weakness and lack of controlling power with the bass regions of the W-5.

He speculated on what the possible causes were. But more importantly, he confirmed that even though the W-5 has many positive attributes, outstanding bass region reproduction is simply not among them.

-IMO

If you like the sound of the ARC VT-100 MKII but need more punch here is an option for you. Buy another used VT-100MKII and bi-amp. You can put one amp on the right side and one on the left. That way no single amp bears the burden of the bass. Your preamp must have two sets of outputs and the speakers must allow bi-wiring. I done this several times and it works very well. It also stops you for hurting yourself moving a 200 watt tube amp. Good Luck.