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Experiences moving from high-power to lower-power system

Dear all,

For years I have been pursing a track of higher and higher power solid-state amplification with medium-to-low efficiency floorstanding speakers. I don't wish to start another tube vs. solid state thread. And we all know the benefits of more, often Class A, power: better headroom, transient response, imaging, soundstage, low-end control. Rather, I want to ask about the experiences of folks who have traded in higher-power for lower-power setups.  What were the tradeoffs? What got better? What got worse? Was it a question of fit with the space? Answers can be from folks with super-high-efficiency speakers and flea-watt amps, tube or solid state, or transitions to setups that are less extreme. 

Thank you,

Paul

paulburnett

Showing 1 response by ejman

ejman's avatar
ejman
62 posts
 
Interesting question.  My main system has a high power SS "tube like" amp Conrad Johnson MF 2300A with Magneplanar 1.7's.  It sounds wonderful.  But I started wondering what a single ended tube amp would sound like. Obviously it would take a lot of $$$ to drive Maggies in a large room with a single ended tube amp so,   being rather short changed in the mullah department I bought a ChiFi  single ended pentode amp for the princely sum of $300 to drive a set of Paradigm Atoms in near field listening in my office setup.
Al I can say is it's been an amazing revelation.  The level of "presence" for lack of a better term is just amazing to me.  I find I'm spending a lot of time in my office and reluctant to turn the system off and go listen to my "real" one.  Maybe it'll wear off, I've only had it for a month - we'll see.
My office system was previously driven by a Creek 4330 MK II and occasionally a Marantz 1060 for vintage flavoring.
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