Sanders ESL Power Amp & Mono blocks

Hi Tpsonic,

Roger strongly prefers SS to tubes and suggests that his own SS pre is a good partner. His view on the SS vs. tube debate is interesting because he has actually designed both. His view is that valves DO sound better than transistors, but only in amplifiers that are clipping. When both valve and transistor amplifiers (and preamplifiers) are operating within their design parameters and not clipping, he maintains that they can (and usually do) sound identical.

What digital source are you now using? Still the Gamut?

Hi Cmk,

I was particularly interested to read about your selection of the Sanders ESL PA - mostly because this product is a natural consideration for audiophiles with difficult speaker loads. Unless you've changed your main speakers recently, your Cabasse is quite efficient and certainly does not need the grunt the ESL amp can provide. How then did you end up with such a powerful amp.

Further, i'm also interested in your pre-amp choice. I've read lots of great things about the ModWright pre-amps. Did you try any other pre's with Sanders?

Thanks

Hi Cmk,

Yes, i was wondering about 36.5 ref but by itself its nearly double the price of the SWLP9.0. Still, other than the optional separate PSU [which looks pretty hideous IMO]but apparently meaningfully improve the audio quality it also comes with balanced connectivity which may float your boat depending on whether its true dual differential or if the rest of your system is configured this way.

Did you do a side by side comparison of the Sanders and Modwright pre? What specifically did you not like about the Sanders pre?

Hi Cerrot,

Thanks for the feedback.

Out of interest have you tried using the unbalanced connection between the Sanders pre and pwr amp and compared that to the balanced connection? Reason i ask is because the internal circuitry of the Sanders pre-amp is not balanced. A balanced input amplifier converts the signal to unbalanced for operation through the preamp. In theory at least the unbalanced connection should be superior - but i wondered if you had tested that in practise.

Second, have you tried any other pre-amps with the Sanders power amp? If so, would you mind sharing what you tried and what your assessment was?

Some of the differences in experience between you and Cmk are bound to come down to your respective taste in musical presentation.

Cheers

04-26-10: Punishen1
[...] In short, I'd buy one again in a heartbeat, and I recommend them to ANYONE running electrostats or any other difficult-to-drive loads.

I agree. In my quest to find the ultimate ESL i've powered a number of them with the Sanders ESL amp. It has worked flawlessly everytime. Many solid-state amps pop fuses (or much worse) with ESL loads. This has not been my experience to date with the Sander's product.