Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?


I am looking for recommendations for a powerful tube amp for my Strads. A powerful tube amp which truly excels at palpability, musicality but also has very good bass control (though bass control is not as 'mission critical' to me as palpability).

My current amp (see below) sounds great to my ears!...but runs out of steam much too soon.

My system today:

Zanden 5000S DAC
CJ Act 2
CJ MV60 (EL 34 tube)
SF Strads (4ohms, 92db sensitivity though impedence does dip to 2.5ohms)
Velodyne DD-18 (run in parallel)
Transparent Ref/Ref XL cabling throughout
Purist Audio Dominus PC

In addition to recommendations, any thoughts are welcome on Wavac, Audio Note, Zanden, VTL, CJ LP275...or monoblocking MV60 (EL34)? Thanks!

Lloydelee21
lloydelee21
You are going to get a lot of suggestions, and since this is Audiogon, most of them bad.

Only a tiny handful of tube amps have output transformers and power supplies of the quality necessary to drive speakers that drop below 3 Ohms in the bass, and they are all extremely expensive. If I were running speakers that present a tough load and just had to do a tube amp, I would look only at the CAT amplifiers, which have the best output transformers I am aware of. They are a real hotrod design, however, and require soldering when tubes fail due to resistors frying upon tube meltdown (which happens frequently because it is a hotrod design). Other options would be the Air Tight Reference and VAC's Renaissance 140's. My guess is that the VTL Siegfried would also work. Generally, you have to be most careful in choosing a high-powered tube amp, as almost all of the well known ones are not as capable of driving low impedance speakers as their ratings would suggest (I also find that high powered tube amps as a rule do not sound very good).

All of that said, I would forgo a tube amp entirely with that speaker in favor of a darTZeel, which will give you better overall sound barring some bizarre synergy issue with the rest of your equipment (I have no reason to think that would occur).

LLoyd, I'd look into a used pair of Cary V12 monoblocks. Those are VERY comfortably driving a friend's Infinity Beta ribbon panels. The V12's are also very musical amps a la Cary tradition..I'd think they would fare well with your Strads. The Beta panels are rated at 86db sensitivity while the Strads are 92db's and they both have a lowish impedence drop, so I guess you won't have any problems there.

Hope this helps..

AG

Try a pair of McIntosh MC275 run in Mono w/ upgraded tubes (Genalex KT 88 Gold Lion 6550 and selected 12XA7 types). Or just buy MC2301 monoblocks rated at 300 watts @ 2 ohm.
I previously owned SF Extrema and now own SF Amati, and in both cases use CAT JL-1 Mono amps. Ive owned the amps now for about 5 years and they just do everything right. they are semi user friendly where occasionally will require you to solder in a resistor pack in the event of a failed tube but this happens very infrequently. I own a solder gun and do this myself as you can too once you become familier with the amp. Amps are very stable and i usually get about 2000 hours from a set of power tubes. If you have any questions feel free to email me.