Kharma Ceramique with Solid State Amp?

Chantaipan and Germanboxers, Thanks for the responses. Any other Kharma owners want to chime in?

Henry, most say that Kharma's sound best with tubes; however, I have come to the conclusion that the Kharma's sound good with just about anything.

Let me explain: My previous speakers (Avalon Eclipse) took on a completely new and wonderful dimension when driven by a high powered tube amp (Manley Ref 250's). The Manley's were a dramatic improvement over the Jadis Def7 MkIV, ARCVT100 MkII, and Levinson #27.5 (100w/ch solid state) WITH the Avalon Eclipses.

I now own the Kharma Ceramique 1.0's and have been driving them with Atma-Sphere MA1 MkII.2 OTL amps. Simply incredible!!! I recently sent one of the Atma-Sphere's to Ralph to replace the binding post (bent from UPS in shipment and only 3.5 months to settle claim). In the meantime, I hooked up my Marantz integrated amp (60w/ch SS) and it sounds very good! I could live with this easily if I didn't know how wonderful the system sounds with the A-S's in place. I tried this with the Avalon's in the past and just couldn't get them to sound good.

My point, I guess, is that the Kharma's seem so utterly easy to drive that even inexpensive solid state integrated amps can produce beautiful music for me. Be sure the Atma-Spheres take it to another level (really great amps BTW), but not in the same degree that the Manley's took the Avalon's compared to otherwise very high-end amps. My personal opinion is that the Avalon's presented a much tougher load for amps, and as a result, an amp not up to the task starts to "assault" the ears to a degree. With the Kharma's you can experience the amps real personality. I liken it to meeting a person for the first time in a relaxed environment versus meeting someone in the police department after they've been mugged.

Sorry for babbling on... you have awesome speakers and I think you will be able to enjoy music through them via solid state or tubes. Give it a try!

My Goldnmund 28+ drives the Kharma 2.1s using silver speaker cables. Incomparable sound even through a run of the mill Sony!!!!