What amp is best with Wilson Sasha DAW speakers

We have a client with the Wilson Alexia using the T+A PA 3100HV which is one of the worlds best integrated amplifiers and he loves his amplifier.

The T+A PA 3100 HV is basically the company's $19k power amp and a paired down version of the T+A $18k preamp in one box. 

The amp is a 300 watt beast and can drive any load, it is warm, punchy, very three dimensional and has an amazing feature set:

Amp can be upgraded with an external power supply
Amp can have a fanatastic phono board added
Amp has a analog parametric equilizer.

The T+A PA 3100 HV uses high voltage rails to run its transistors like a tube amplfier this creates a very full bodied and liquid sound yet the amp runs warm and not super hot.

https://www.ta-hifi.de/en/audiosystems/hv-series/pa-3100-hv-integrated-amplifier/

In this review the T+A PA 3100 was compared to a $50k Dagastino Momentum integrated:

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/ta-elektroakustik-3100-hv-pdp-3000-hv-sacdcd-...

If you are on the East Coast we have T+A products on display


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ T+A dealers

Carey Spectral does play well with Wilson the issue with Spectral is that you have to use an entire Spectral system and Mit cables and power conditioning for the system to be stable. Mit cables are very expensive and are not as transparent as many non network cables.


For this and other reasons Spectral has not been gaing market share as other easier to use high performing electronics companies proliferate. 

Kren as per WIlson and ARC being shown together doesn't necessarily mean that that is the best combo. Often company's that have a working relationship will show together. So sometimes in the past ARC might have given Wilson amplifiers in exchange for a set of speakers for them to have in their listening room or sales managers who are friends. 

So sometimes the setups that are popular at shows have more to do with these relationships then anything else. 

We heard the Wilson/ARC setup at Axpona and it was very good. 

Roberjerman2,  sorry you are very mistaken, we are a Parasound dealer and their gear is excellent, but in no way does a A21 compete with amplifiers that are five figure amplifiers, the Parsound A21 is a lovely $3k amp but does show it limitation same with their preamp. 

If we were going to use a $38k pair of Wilsons we would definately want someone to use the best possible electronics and when you listen to a good amplifier vs a really good amplifier there are distinctly different things that you will experience in terms of resolution, image float, midrange liquidity, bass slam, dynamic impact and overall realisim.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ 

Astewart, there is no doubt that should be an excellent combo you are talking a $30k preamp and a $30k pair of amplifiers, that is a $60k for the electronics add in a good set of interconnects and power cables and you are way up there in terms of price so yeah that combo should sound really good.

We are suggesting a $23k intergrated amplifier which sounds about 80% of the companies $40k separates. 

So aside from just sound quality you have that issue of how much do I want to spend to accheive great sound?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Carey, the T+A gear we recommend is warm and very musical yet has outstanding resolution and dynamics.

If you research the company you will see the HV concept, this is emmulating the sound of tubes by running the rail voltages to much greater than standard rail voltage for solid state designs.

The T+A engineers stumbled upon this concept after building some reference grade tube gear. The prevailing thought to why tubes sound more organic has always been the thought that tube disortions are even order harmonic based vs transistor disortions which tend to be odd order harmonic in nature.

The T+A engineers started an experiment where they postulated that by amping up the rail voltage in a transistor design, that the transistors would be run in a more linear fashion at higher voltages and create less distortion, and therefore sound more organic and more tube like.

Tests proved that at higher rail voltages the amplifers did indeed sound better, this lead to a custom designed output stage and parts capable of being run a much higher voltages and thus the High Voltage series was born.

For less money the new Krell gear is fantastic, they use a special type of Bias circuitry and run in Class A, the new Krell gear is awesome and affordable, however, on comparision the T+A is still a notch higher.

For this reason we recommend so highly the T+A PA 3100HV which is the company’s same power amplifier and a slightly paired down version of their reference preamplifer for a bit more than half price of the separates.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ T+A dealers

Rauligues, we are a Parasound dealer and we had the JC 1 on display, in the same rack was a pair of Electrcompaniet AW 400, a pair of Chord SPMP 650 monoblocks and the Reference Chord SPM 1400.

The reality is the Parasound was the cheapiest and least good souding amplifier in that stack.

It wasn’t that the JC 1 were bad, no they were decent, except that the Electrocompaniet was far better, the EC amps were about $2k more expensive, and the Chord monoblocks were a bit better than the Electrcompaniet.

Parasound builds great for the money gear, there is no way that any of their products compete with things that are five times the cost, we know we sell those items.

We sell Parasound because they produce excellent value for the dollar equipment, their products sound great for the price, are very well made and reliable.

In the case of the JC 1 they were nice not exceptional amplifers that got bettered by amplifiers that were not that much more expensive.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-doctor-searching-best-everything

(this was before the Kef Blades and Chord Reference amplfiers, you can cleary see the JC 1 at the bottom of the rack)


Our test system at the time was a pair of Kef Blades, with the EMM Labs Dac 2X Se, Esoeric D03X reference dacs and a high end server, cabling and power conditioning.

Your love of the brand is noble but misguided, you really do get what you pay for.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor

Raulgias, your findings don't in anyway mirror our findings, as per price if an amplifer is $10k JC 1 and the other amplifier is $12k-14k that is basically in the same price range. 

So in our system first with the Kef 207.2 and then the Kef Blades the more expensive amplifiers sounded signfigantly better.

The fact that the other amplifiers were a bit more expensive means that most people would pay the difference. We don't recommend an amplifier just by price alone, which is why we had the amplifier in the first place. 

We purchased the amp and preamp based on raves from reviewers and the forums, without hearing the amplifiers. 

Once we got them into our store, burned them in, and tested them vs other amplifiers which came into our store a bit latter did we come to our conclusions.

We continue to work with Parasound because they make excellent products for the money, the reality is that the more expensive gear sounds better as it should.

If you honestly think that a Boulder was not better than a Parasound, then it could be a couple of things, one a gross mismatch sonically with the Boulder amplifiers which tend to be sonically a lean, clean sound with big bass or two something was not right with the Boulder amplfiers.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Carey we are just a little suprised you aren’t at least considering some of the uber intergrated amplifiers which these days sound as good or better than many sets of separates.

The Gryphon Diablo 300, the new Vitus piece and the T+A 3100HV are all spectacular units, the T+A’s phono card was compared to 7-10k phono stages by the Absolute Sound, and it is internal is really inexpensive.

We have heard the new Backet labs preamps at the shows, and the sound is very impressive, many people are considering their preamps to match many of the really expensive tube preamps out there for a lot less.

The other tube preamp that is gaining a lot of great review is the Zesto.

We sell neither of these just an observation.

We would definatly say that the VTL or ARC on the old Krell is not going to be really good until you move into a new amplifier, we know the old Krell sound, had both the KSA 250 and the FPB 450MCX amplifiers in the past.

Again in the past while working at SBS the VTL 7.5 did sound great with the Krell amplifiers of the day.

Krells new XD series amplfiers are actually really rather extraordinary on the Wilson’s we heard the Chorus XD 300 at CAP last year on the Alexx’s in VPI’s room and the sound betweent the Krell and the Wilsons was extraordinary, and the prices are super reasonable for an amplifier of this quality.  You should ask Matt Weisfled of VPI what the sound was like at CAP last year, the sound of the Alexxs on a set of the new Krell 300XD was one of the best sounds of the entire show, and beat out many really expensive electronics setups.


One of the reaons we recommend the T+A 3100HV to you so highly is that it sounds very tube like and drives Wilson’s extremely well, we have a client in CA who was on a long seach to find great electronics to drive a set of Alexias and head the 3100HV making magic on that speaker.

Good luck on your search.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Krell, T+A dealers

Great piece.

as we mentioned we have a client with the Alexias and the T A 3100Hv and he loves the sound.

So yes you can great results with one of these mosters.