Indiesound, don't get me wrong - the Ushers can sound terrific with tube amplification! For me, the issue was that the room they are in is reasonably large (15' x 18' x9') and I had to turn the volume control up to 11am to get decent sound pressure. But I always had this sense that the amp was sweating too hard to get these levels whilst the speakers weren't even out of 2nd gear. The midrange was palpable with the tubes but the bass was slower than I liked and seeemed to get too loose.
By the way, whilst the published sensitivity of the Be-718s is 87db, they've been measured to actually be closer to 84db, so really need a bit of power.
With solid state amplification of 150 watts (A300) or 250 watts (A5), the bass tightened up and integrated better with the mids and highs. The amps seemed to be able to control the speaker better and I didn't have the sense that the speaker was craving more power.
I don't know if it's just the watts or a combination of watts, amps and higher damping factors that enabled the solid state amplification to bring out the best in the Ushers in my room. It might be worthwhile to try a tube amp with 100 watts and a low output impedance to see how this might combine (something like the Cayin A100-T or one of the more powerful Rogue amplifiers).
If your room is on the smaller side, perhaps a 50 watt tube amp would cope better than in my system/room. Hope this helps flesh out my earlier comments.
By the way, whilst the published sensitivity of the Be-718s is 87db, they've been measured to actually be closer to 84db, so really need a bit of power.
With solid state amplification of 150 watts (A300) or 250 watts (A5), the bass tightened up and integrated better with the mids and highs. The amps seemed to be able to control the speaker better and I didn't have the sense that the speaker was craving more power.
I don't know if it's just the watts or a combination of watts, amps and higher damping factors that enabled the solid state amplification to bring out the best in the Ushers in my room. It might be worthwhile to try a tube amp with 100 watts and a low output impedance to see how this might combine (something like the Cayin A100-T or one of the more powerful Rogue amplifiers).
If your room is on the smaller side, perhaps a 50 watt tube amp would cope better than in my system/room. Hope this helps flesh out my earlier comments.