Which 300B SET for SF Guarneri Homage?


Driving my Guarneri with a Pass Aleph 3 amp(with audio aero capitole mkIISE cdp+pre), which goes quite well, but thinking of upgrading amp to a couple of 300B monoblocks...
The thing is this is a tricky change because, among other things, the Pass is built like a tank and is an excellent amp. So I want to make the decision carefully with no hurries...
Considering as an option the Coincident Frankenstein's but i'm not too informed about tube amps.
I listen to all sorts of music though fav is Opera, so my expectations with the change would go on the line of getting a more real life experience.
I wonder if anyone had any experience of driving these 87db sensitivity, 6-8ohm speakers with a SET and would appreciate opinions or suggestions
dongiovanni

Showing 5 responses by dongiovanni

Thanks all for the advise; i listen at somewhat low levels at a distance of 8' to the speakers (room is about 19x19 although irregular). Cheers,
I appreciate all the informative opinions to aid my decision.
The ideal thing would be to try it, but that won't be possible.
An additional thing is that i have a SF Gravis active sub to help with the bass (cutoff below 42) connected to the amps outputs; i don't know if this factors at all on the equation.
My personal experience is that the SF GH are driven pretty easily by the Pass, but this is 30w.
Cheers,
As an additional note about the Frankenstein's, on his page about these, Arthur Salvatore mentions the exceptional power/volume capability of these monoblocks and hints - as possible reason - at the current delivery / 6EM7 input-driver tube.
Well folks, in the end I got the coincident frankensteins... with safety net, in case they wouldn't work. Got them yesterday so no time to burn-in but so far my conclusions are:
-gorgeous sound driving my guarneri homage (a sf gravis attached too)
-fat, rich, smooth transparent sound
-sounds good also on orchestral or rock (eg wagner's flying dutchman's or led zeppelin)
-these 8W per monoblock sound like much more power
Thanks for all your inputs!
Yes, i guess it will depend on the listener's expectations, and there are so many factors involved that even cables i suppose will affect the combo. The truth is i was a bit puzzled of what could happen, but i'm really pleasantly surprised at the response i got: sounds like more power than my previous amp, more spaciousness, bigger soundstage, fuller sound (more on the vynil side) even though i play cd's. I think it's also quite dynamic: i even tried a chesky presentation disk and sounds good on the dynamic test tracks. Who knows how it sounds with the coincident dragon's - maybe much better. But for my expectations it sounds very good, so i don't need to pay the extra $$..
I did get the shuguang treasures from the beginning. I use nordost spm as speaker cables and aftermarket prepared short nordost valhalla IC with WBT connectors. I imagine the coincident IC's are good but not sure how they compare with the nordost. I'm waiting to try the 16ohm speaker b.post after i have the tubes somewhat more burnt-in, to compare with the 8 ohm binding post i'm using now. By the way, do you notice any difference with tube dampers - is it worth it? Anyway, thanks a lot for all the suggestions