Tube Amp for Martin Logan Speakers

I recently auditioned a set of Manley Snappers with my ML Aeon i's and the combo with my ModWright SWL 9.0SE sounds absolutely superb! The Snappers are 100 WPC monoblocks that run in ultralinear mode - they are very tight and detailed in the lows and highs with no boom or grain and the midrange is to die for. They pair exceptionally well with the ModWright which is a very transparent tube-hybrid design. I have a fairly small-sized listening room and the Snappers have plenty of power to drive the Aeon i's - even for demanding rock and full orchestra pieces. Depending on your listening levels, I would highly recommend the Snappers as being a great match for MLs.

Just a little background on my experience with the Manley Snappers.

I really think what can make a difference is how hard you're pushing the Snappers.

I was very concerned about the Snappers - given the specs - which is why I insisted on auditioning them before purchasing them. I had read that they were a tad more sweet in the midrange than the Rogue Audio M-150s (which is what I was planning on after reading some very positive reviews), but I suspected they wouldn't have the power to drive my Aeon i's - especially in the higher frequencies where the Aeon i's can drop down to just under 2 Ohms. And I should tell you that I am also using a pair of subs to augment the Aeon i's since they are totally passive and can only get down to 43Hz. But a practically brand new pair of Snappers came in at my local dealer's shop and he called me up and asked me if I wanted to try them out for a week. I decided to give them a try after speaking with Paul over at Manley Labs - being cognizant of the fact that my listening room is quite small and I would not likely be pushing the Snappers too hard.

All I can say is they sounded amazing through the Aeon i's. I brought over two audiophile friends - call them P and W. P is in his late 20's and can easily hear frequencies above 15kHz (which is actually pretty rare) and both were blown away by the sound. We we're comparing the Snappers with my Parasound HCA-3500 which has ZERO problem driving my ML's and the Snappers outperformed the 3500 in practically every way - especially on musicality and sound stage depth. What really shocked me was when W said he thought the Snappers had more slam than the 3500 - especially since slam is what the 3500 is really known for. P indicated that the highs were a bit more subdued with the Snappers, but they sounded much more pleasant in his mind. For W, there was no comparison - the Snappers sounded MUCH better in his mind - even to the point that he has now decided to move over to tubes. And we listened to all types of music - classical (full orchestra and smaller ensemble works), jazz (traditional and modern) and classic rock. Female vocals sounded especially life-like through the Snappers.

But keep in mind, the caveat to all this is the levels we were using for the audition given my room size. If you have a large room that needs some serious volume, then all the data does suggest that the Snappers will probably run out of steam and you might be better off with something like the M-150s or M-180's. But in my room at least, the Snappers had plenty of power to drive my Aeon i's with a level of quality that was leaps and bounds above the 3500.

Would a pair of M-150's or M-180's do better? Or one of the top-end Pass amps? Maybe. But all I can say is the Snappers were available, they were less than 8 months old and in like-new condition and they were priced at $3600 for the pair (they now retail new for $7200). So in my case at least, getting them was a no-brainer.

Specs are certainly important but they are not the end-all-be-all. At the end of the day, you really need to listen and decide for yourself how a component integrates with your existing system and room topology. For me, the Snappers were a major step-up and I'm totally happy with them.