I've owned the Victorys, Total Eclipse, and now the Total Victorys. The Total Victorys are the best of the 3, as you might imagine, since they are the top-of-the-line. I found the Victorys to be somewhat limited in amplifier choices because of the lean midrange. Not a problem if you choose one of the Coincident amps that are warm in the mids. But don't pick an amp that's neutral. You won't be happy with the sound. I also found the bass in the Victorys to be lacking. Couple that with the less-than-stellar bass performance of the SETs they work with so well, and you exascerbate the problem. I would therefore recommend going with the monoblock Coincident amps, since the improvements brought on by their larger transformers is largely in the bass. Israel told me that the changes mentioned on his website for the monoblocks were done because the stereo version sounded just as good as the monos for less money. One of the best amp matches for the Victorys that I found was a 12 watt Audion Sterling ETSE with 2 NOS Seimans EL34s and a Seimans CCA 6922 input tube. You can buy it for under a grand used with the NOS tubes, and the combination is amazingly good.
The Total Eclipses work well with just about any amp, but the Totals do have a warm midrange. For that reason, I would not use the Coincident amps with them. I also tried a Wavac 300B with the Total Eclipses and didn't like it. I used a Wyetech Topaz with them that worked very well, but just about any neutral amp will. They are very easy to drive, as all Coincident speakers are. The Total Eclipses tend to be less detailed, and have to be played fairly loud to get them to perform well. They didn't work real well in my medium sized room for that reason. My friend now owns them and has a very large room. They work well for him. I found them to be very musical with excellent imaging and soundstaging. Despite my preferences for certain amps, these speakers sounded good no matter what I put in front of them. Some things worked better than others, though.
The Total Victorys have the detail of the Victorys with much better bass and a much more full bodied midrange without being warm, dark, or lush. They image and soundstage as well as the Total Eclipses. They are 97db efficient, 10 ohm speakers that can be driven by just about anything. I thought the sound using my Audion Sterling was very good, but was blown away by how good these speakers sounded using my Edge NL10. At 225 watts, you would think that the Edge is overkill, but it sounds absolutely fabulous on the Total Victorys. I have a Virtual Image Twenty / Forty coming that is supposed to be the best amp ever made at any cost, according to a reviewer. At 20 watts, it will an interesting amp to compare to the Edge on the Total Victorys. These speakers sound good at low volume or high volume. That, to me, is the real strength of the Total Victorys. They are so versatile, and seem to do everything right. I am not limited in any way to the type of amp I can use with these speakers, because of their high effciency and excellent coherency and voicing.
