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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
chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
Tubes for sure.I have a pair of German Odeon Tosca's with and easy to drive 8 ohm 94db sensitivity a dn use a 40 watt push pull EL34 amp (like EL34's for midrange but KT88 amps like McIntosh 275 is great too).But you could easily in s mid sized room use a SET amp (Sinle Ended Triode).The output tubes are more expensive but you can use modern chinses or Russian tubes and get a great pair of driver tubes, the set before the output ones and get NOS(New Old Stock from 50's or 60's) and they last much longer than the 3,000 hour outputs.SERT amps run from 2 or 3 watts for some types to up to 20 watts for others.I'd go there with maybe a Bal Canto or much cheaper a Yammamotto.But use the high sensitivity even if you get a push pull (more common higher powered) and many you can switch from Pentode to triode.I had a Mesa Baron which put out 120 watts which cann drive almost anything ,even really hard to drive speakers like Maggies,but wiuth a high sensitivity speaker could switch it to triode (seeeter sounding) at 60 watts.Many tube power or inegrated amps allow this "On The Fly".I have nice uncollered horns (some are like Klipsch) and wouldn't think of using anything but tubes.Yours are better than mine sin overall quality AND are even easier to drive.I'd bet 9 out of 10 Avategarde useres run them withg tube amps.Type and power is according to room size and tastes.But I have thought about a pair of Uno or Duo's for a long time and and 845 output tube amp is what I would choose in a midsize room.Bel canto,Cary 805's (great amp),and others.
Enjoy
Chazzbo
clfcarney
29 posts
 
Best thing I found on Duos was the Shindo Cortese.Second best was Tom Evans Linear A.The Tron stuff is supposed to be good ,too.
stefanfad8 OP
4 posts
 
Soundlock,
sure the H-Cat looks like something interesting, and it has a remote, which for me is a MUST. Unfortunately I do not understand the principle and mistrust revolutionary technology.
I just want to know if I can find something MUCH better than the C-46, otherwise I will just keep it, since the sound is now quite phenomenal.
Jeffreybowman,
the Tron would probably be a nice amp too, but is has no remote. In my case a NO-NO.
Locally I have access to Accuphase C-2400 and the new Sugden Masterclass LA4 Preamp. Any experience on those?
topoxforddoc's avatar
topoxforddoc
353 posts
 
Another vote for TRON. I have a TRON Meteor tube pre (predecssor of the SYREN) and GT Audio rebuilt Quad IIs (Graham Tricker is GT Audio and also TRON amplifiers). I use them with my Duos and I am delighted with them. I shall be upgrading at some point ot a TRON power amp when the money tree bears fruit.

Charlie
thomasheisig
568 posts
 
Saw a few with Atma-Sphere amps. I think, that's an interesting combo.
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