What amp for Q5's? Spectral, Solution, Gryphon

Thanks all... Peterayer - Husk01 was referring to a posting on What's Best Forum as well.

Yes, I own the Q5's. No time for the pre/amp selection. Seems Alon Wolf has paired them with Soulution, Spectral, Boulder and VAC, so that's kind of how I'm trying to home in on the short list.

I've heard them at my friend Husk01's home with a Gryphone Collosseum/VAC MK2a and they sounded great, but I didn't have enough time to make a judgement.

I heard them with the ARC REF 250/VAC MK2a and didn't care for that at all. Then I heard them with the Soulution 710/VAC MK2a and that was much more to my liking, but I still felt something was missing - maybe they need more power...

Interestingly, the VAC pre was common in all auditions - I do think the Q5's benefit from some softening/warmth in the pre section. Other than the REF 250's, I haven't heard them with tube amps... I ended up steering away from tubes after that audition.

I've been told the Spectral offers a more "full" and "special" sound with a bit more extension in the low end than than the Soulution.

I'd be keenly interested in feedback if anyone has conducted an A/B comparison in the same room with the Q5's between the Soulution 710 and Spectral 360SII - or - between the Boulder and Spectral.

Thanks again all - good feedback.

I drive the Q5 with Spectral 30ss and 360 mono.
Cd player Esoteric K01. Cables MIT Matrix.
I think is a very good combination with an incredible,
transparent and full sound. I heard the Magico Q3
with Boulder in a very bad show condition and it was not good. I made A/B comparison between Spectral 30ss
and 30ss serie2. That was interesting, the difference is
not night and day but you can clearly hear it. I will do
the upgrade when possible. The Q5 need a lot of good
power and current.
Greetings from Switzerland Sergio

I use Spectral 30SS Series 2 and the DMA 260 with Magico V3 and it is pretty much as good as I have heard. I also have used the Devialet and would put this a very close second - and probably better if you add convenience and elegance as a criteria.

FWIW, IME, the new ARC REF series amps sound better through their 8 Ohm taps--yielding a richer fuller more relaxed sound--better bass too. Whereas through 4, although sounding a tad more linear, it could at the same time sound a little thin and mechanical. This was consistent with the few speakers (Wilson, Kharma, Tidal) I tried them with regardless of their factory spec'd Ohm. Also, the couple hundred hours from new is essential for the teflon caps/tubes to fully stabilize.

Thanks Seos - I auditioned the 30SS S2 and DMA 360 S2 on Wilson Max's today at a dealers - they did sound nice. So I'll audition them "in-home" with my Q5's. I also auditioned the Boulder 1060 and 1012 this evening, though the setting was sub-par - seemed like really nice gear - would be nice to audition them "in-home" as well. We'll see how things pan out with the in-home audition of the Spectral gear...