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Amps for Avantgarde

I recently installed a new set of Avantgarde Mezzo speakers. They have two horns for medium and high frequencies and a horn based woofer cabinet with its own 500 Watt amplification.
The speakers look great ( I have them in cherry with burgundy red horns), my wife likes them and the sound is GLORIOUS !
You can see my setup in Avantgarde-acoustic.de web page/gallery
Bass it has all you can take, the limit is your ears an the furniture trying to move around by itself. Even at low levels you get plenty of bass.

From my former setup with Aerial 8B speakers i had a C-46, two MC-501 and a MCD-205, all McIntosh.
With the Avantgardes the MC-501 were showing a watt usage of hardly over 0.5 Watts, at normal listening levels and no more than 5 Watts when really turniung the volume up to hurting levels. The sensitivity of the Mezzo is 107dB.
I thought that maybe I should try the real fine stuff, valves single ended, which have an output power handicap, but in this case with theses speakers not. 5 Watts is probably enough.
A friend of mine who is also audio dealer loaned me a set of Klimo Belataine Mono Valve amps, 5 Watts Class A, single ended, 300B, with automatic bias controll and choice of feedback or no feedback. The Klimos have a separate power supply for each mono amp and those are also valve operated.
He also gave me a Klimo Merlin valve preamp to try.
Ther hearing test produced the following results.
The Merlin with the Beltaines compared to the C-46 with the MC501's sounded more real, more detaild, more lifelike and maybe with a tighter bass. No distortion or noise was heard at any level.
But I did try another combination, and that was hooking up the C-46 to the Klimos
And I got an even better, more detailed and lifelike sound than with the Merlin Valve preamp.

I have never been really interested in valve amplifiers and considered well designed solid state the better.
Well, the Klimo Beltaine power amps are a joy, but the McIntosh C-46 preamp sounds better than the Klimo Merlin, which has had some good reviews, allthough it is not considered a preamp good for rock. Maybe that gives a hint.

Now here is my question, should I stick with the C-46 or can I get something much better, solid state or tube ?
stefanfad8

Showing 1 response by eljaro

eljaro
27 posts
 
Well, after some tweaking here and there I ended up with a system which just sounds fantastic.
I did replace the Cetron 300B Triodes on the Klimo Beltaine with a set of Chinese made TJ 300B Mesh Anode Globe tubes and left the AEG E88CC in the Merlin preamp alone after trying out a set of NOS Mullard, which turned out to be slightly microphonic and did not sound any better.
I installed a motorized Alps potentiometer with a proper remote circuit for the volume, so now it has remote vol.control too.
All I can say about the sound with the Klimo Merlin and these 5 Watt SET Beltaines driving the 107dB Mezzos is that it is the very best sound from a stereo system I have ever heard in my life. Its like being there (at the performance) all the time. Not only the speakers disappear but so does the room.
I tested some very good Class A solid state amplifier in the system, and although the sound was very good too, it could not match the ambience and warmth created by the tubed setup.
And believe me, the Avantgarde Mezzos sound fantastic. Nothing new I can add to what everybody knows about the mids and highs, but the new bass drivers are incredible. Deep, fast and tight, as should be.
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