How's the First Watt F3

Any impressions since the last post?

I owned Avantgarde Duos for three years and have owned Avantgarde Meta Primos for the past 15 months. I owned and demoed many of highly touted tube amplifers (Audiopax, Art Audio, BAT, Cary, Wyetech, Audionote and etc.)that are known to sound good with Avantgarde loudspeakers. I recently purchased Avantgarde's new Model 5+ integrated which sounds very good with the Meta Primos. I demoed the older version of the Model 5 that was introduced a couple of years ago and absolutely hated the way it sounded. The new Model 5+ version uses Black Gate Capacitors and surprisingly sounds very good. I demoed First Watt's F-1, F-2, and the Aleph J with my Duos and then with the Meta Primos. The Aleph J sounde the best but still had a little bit of that solid-state forward edge that I did not like. Both the F-3 and Red Wine Signature 30 are on my list to demo, but I'm pretty happy with the sound I'm getting with the Model 5+. Who would have figured?

One More thing. E-mail me if you would like to share experiences with Trio/amp combinations and other ideas.
Steve.

I would like to hear opinions on that too. I use Viva Aurora 845 monoblocks on my trios. When talking to the ex-representative Jim Smith of Avantgarde,Audiopax, and Viva,he told me the Aurora was the best amplifier that he had ever heard on Avantgardes. He dropped the Viva line and took on Audiopax. This comment was made after all his business was closed. I'm thinking he took on the Audiopax, because it performed very well as others keep commenting on that, and it was a lot more affordable than the Viva gear. I have never heard the Audiopax but would like to one day. Read the Six moons review on the First Watt, he compares the performance close to the Yamamoto A-A08S that I have right now. It failed to be a good match for the Trios though. A little of topic but better than nothing.
Steve.