USHER BE-20 + Spectron Musician III MK2

Thanks all gentlemen for your great opinion.

I'm also considering Plinius SA Ref.. What do you think?
What's about ARC Ref.3 as pre.?

Cheers....

If 200 lbs weight and generated heat does not bother you then Plinius Reference is a great amp. One of the best around. A touch better then Spectron in highs and touch worse then Spectron in the bass and slam areas. Midrange, I much prefer Spectron but with Bybee filters only. Without Bybees - if I recall well, both are about the same (except weight and heat)

ARC Ref.3 - no comparison with BAT REX or Joule-Electra LA-300 or VTL 7.5, in my totally subjective opinion. Dry, no life-like presentation which you will need so much combining your tube preamp with transistor amp be it Spectron or Plinius.

All The Best
Rafael

Spectron Mono Block vs Plinius SA Ref. Will Spectron be a lot better?

BE-20 is very very good in high and mid so I'm quite reluctant to jump into Spectron.

BAT REX is over my budget so I have to wait for LA-300ME then.

Thanks

The Joule/Spectron is a known combination and is considered by many to be ideal. The Spectron amp does take awhile to fully break-in...ideally a 1000 hours. If you can swing it I would highly recommend the V-cap and Bybee upgrades. That would be the ultimate.

Regarding Mr. Moskowich's comments regarding BAT preamps...where do people come up with this stuff?

NEW BLUE NOTE AWARD 2009 for Spectron.

"...what really has my juices flowing is using these amplifiers in monoblock mode. Apart from the obvious benefits of monoblock configuration -- massive power providing near-infinite headroom and freedom from clipping -- the monoblocks sound even faster, sweeter and more relaxed, have superior bass depth and pitch definition, and throw a larger, more dimensional soundscape than a single stereo Musician III.

No, they don't mimic the special quality of tubes -- a kind of creamy sweetness in the harmonic presentation. It is easy to understand the appeal of that tube sound; it has had a grip on me for years. But what the Spectrons do is, to my mind, ultimately even more impressive. The "full boat" Musician III Mk II monoblocks --with the Bybee A.C. internal Bullets and V-Cap options -- have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round-- than any other amplifier, at any price, based on any technology, that I have ever heard."

- Wayne Donnelly, EnjoyTheMusic November 2009