Tube Amp for Totem Hawks

do you listen to cd's mostly? if so, maybe a sweet DAC would be of help. with a barn for a listening room you are going to get a lot of glare from reflected highs anyway as you know. tubes will help i think but without some absorbtive treatments i think you will still get ringing issues. jmo. btw, i have similar speakers, kestral 2, and use a modified jolida 502b 60 wpc to good results. they make a 100 wpc integrated that is in your $ range. but you have a lot of choices for $2500 and some consider jolida entry level so..... experiment with tubes tho if you feel the urge!

VTL ST85 or Shanling SP80 Mono or VTL ST150 used

My AVA Fet Valve Ultra 550 performs extremely well with my different but similarly spec'ed speakers (mine are 87 dB; dips to 6 ohms), though they do not have metal tweeter. However, the amp provides such an extremely smooth top end without sacrificing extension I suspect it would do very well with your speakers. Though it contains several tubes it is not your typical "tube" amp, but a hybrid. Powerful (well over 250 w/ch 8 ohms), sweet, musical, extended, fast, and reliable with tremendous service support. Plus, 30-day money back, though you pay shipping. Beat THAT with a stick! http://www.avahifi.com/root/equipment/amplifier/fetvalve_550ex.htm

I definitely have room factors but they are what they are since my listening room is our family room and I won't be allowed to mess with it if you know what I mean. The room is very big, two story ceilings, opens into the kitchen, hardwoods etc - basically a sonic nightmare.

I also have two subs that have solved most of my bass issues. Just want to smooth out some of the treble glare and I'd be happy. Don't listen at extremely loud levels so don't need window-shaking power.

Budget - under $2.5K new or used.

Thanks

How about the Rogue Zeus? Ok, I am joking a bit since it retails at $7500.

What is your budget?

I agree with Jclnv, there could be room factors and such.

Hello,

I just purshased a pair of Hawks and am wondering the same thing. I currently am using a Mccormack dna1 deluxe which actually sounds pretty good, but would like to venture into tubes.

Hey,

There are so many non-component areas that could improve your situation, room acoustics, equipment rack, cables etc but presuming you've exhuasted these options I'd suggest a demo of a Sugden A21. I think that amp works very well with metal tweeter Totems and creates a good base for a sweet simple system.