Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

Have owned and listened to different Stradivari set up at friends.
have listened with many poweramps and one of the best matches turned out to be the accuphase P7100.
have listened to Wavac 833 1.3 too, Lamm M1.2ref and some others.
the Stradivari needs the best, and it needs a dominant amp.
with Lamm M1.2ref it was nice as for sound, but this did not bring out what a Strad is capable of.
the big Zanden mono's are superb match soundwise, but if you really want fireworks: TENOR hybrid or Accuphase.

Have had the Stradivari for some year and partnered it with some very different amps. i have a very large listening room. the best all round partnering obviously was with the Accuphase P7100. beeing fairly high in sensitivity ( 92 or even 93dB) it comes to mind it can be partnered with any good an nice tubeamp. well to really get the performance i would choose great SS anytime.
it's all in the match.
the claim that 'this SS sounds like tubes' is to my experience hoped for but never achieved.
what does happen indeed is that both camps come closer still to the ultimate goal. and that is good news.

Have actually partnered my Stradivari at that time with Lamm M1.2Ref for a longer period. although a nice combination as for sound and an 'easy' on the ear musical experience, after the Accuphase P7100 match the Lamm hybrid was soon forgotten and parked in our memories as NOT the match with Stradivari.
id rather think of Accuphase, Gryphon, FMA, Boulder, Soulution, Krell, Ayre.
ymmv :-)

there are very enthusiast reports on Stradivari and Soulution as a match made in heaven. think i read these at the Greek ACA website where many show attendants reviewed this combination as absolutely stellar. and that in the light of show conditions.
if i still had Stradivari i would have no doubt as for amps: they would be SS and could be chosen for personal liking due to character. we might likely agree that the Boulders are bit different than the Vitus amps.

The Gryphon Antileon (signature) as i have experienced and as reviewed by others may very well be the best product of Mr Rasmussen.
personally i do not like the Gryphon preamps very much.
but i know from Antileon owners that with the right speakers and powercords it is one of those amps to die for and inhibits the magic factor.
congrats on your choice, and pls report your findings :-)

that is: if you can find time to withdraw from the music..

pls repeat the mantra with us:
'It's all in the match'

the Dominus in itself is a great PC but the next level Anniversary easily betters it. if you crave for speed and resolution i would however not pick Purist cables as first choice.
the SF speakers benefit greatly from Fast-Authorative- Speed and Resolution amps and cables. remember it is all in the match :-) i would first settle in with your Dominus, take your time and eventually try another PC.

the Speltz autoformers are a solution to a problem for sure.
personally i see no reason to go OTL first and put in Speltz Autoformers later because of bad speaker impedance.
why not choose 'good' speakers first?
i don't say the Autoformers don't work or don't sound good.
but to me it's like towing a caravan behind a sportscar and using slick tires still. well something like that.

i think high wattage as per definition is not a sign of a 'good' amplifier. and you don't need 300 watts to drive the 93 dB Stradivari.
you rather need 50 superb watts. the first few watts count most.
high wattage may be a sign of capacity but it says nothing about quality of powersupply nor authority.
big & heavy amps says nothing about authority and control too.
as a great example the little Cello Encore 50 amplifiers look like little sigar boxes and weigh nothing. i would dare to say these are more powerful sounding then many many amplifiers be it 300 or even 1000 watts.
the 'little' FM 111 monoamps would apply very nicely too.
or the 'little' Boulder 800 series. these amps would get any SF speaker on their knees :-)
don't let specs and size or even marketing 'the bigger the better' mislead. it may account for in many cases but not per definition.

now the big Gryphon is big and heavy for intrinsic reasons. it is one of the few true class A amps out there and this means big heatsinks and so acres of heat dissipation alloy. pure Class A rules be it SS or tubes.
once again congratulations on your Gryphon and Stradivari match and looking forward to read your experiences on Gon.

yes i can imagine the addicton or a love for certain speaker i got the same for my Verity. and the AtmaSphere OTL is known to me to say the least..
it may be worth trying out the Autoformers which will be great for what they do.
i have learnt alot from mixing and matching through the years and made less than happy choices and also found very lucky combinations as per try.
the interesting thing is that combinations which may form a dream team on paper still don't work out in the real world.
maybe that is just the reason there is some many gear for sale again. and nothing wrong with that.

hard to tell which PC may be best for the Gryphon and your situation. it's part of the journey to buy and resell to finally settle on a particular brand and type.
try out the Valhalla PC too.

fwiw: just today my local CD store put out signs at the street with 50% discount on it.
just happened to be at the other side of the street doing a haircut. i walked in and bought 80 CD's for halve price.
reason for closedown of the shop was a downhill on sales due to internet sales and the www downloads.
it felt doublesided, happy to score so much great titles for a 50% discount, but at the same time felt sorry for the shop owner.
as the song goes: 'The times, They are a changing'

seems the Gryphon has kissed Lady Stradivari out of her sleep!
it can only get better soundwise, suspect a 3 month period with some nice PC to get it blossoming.
great to read your first impression.
keep us posted. and tell us about the green bias procedure.

The SF Stradivari is for sure one of those speakers to hang on to for life. every speaker shall do less to an extent with many common amps, will work good with certain amps, and will perform superb with only couple of amps.. no matter what powerfigures or topology or brand alone.
even amongst the very best SS amps there will be one which will get the nod above the others with a typical speaker.. in any case i found the speaker & amp combination to be a very crucial one, and if you got it right you made a quantum leap.
if i read point 1 to 7 it is very likely you got a stunning combination found!
take your time to squeeze out the last say 10% in refinement and get into that magic zone.
i'm curious about the greenbias position and the full class A bias and how these two settings behave soundwise.

my tip: check out the LessLoss and Stealth powercables.

thanks for sharing experiences.
800 watts is a lot, i used to own Atma MA2 which eat up 800 watts each channel..
but a reasonable household vacuumcleaner will eat up 1.5kW and sounds very bad too.
very clever thinking of Mr Rasmussen to implement the various Class A bias range.
i had just the same experience with the Pass XA30 amp here. at lower volumes it sounded sweet, but the moment i really crancked it, it turned to a nasty SS.
btw Pass has a great article on 'Class A' at his website. a must read.
this http://www.tubedepot.com/whisbipo.html is a must read too and a great way of showing how class A works.

keep em spinning :-)