Wilson Alexia 20x15 Room

11-17-14: Vladimir
But I also agree with Bo1972, the Magico S5s are at least as good as the Alexias and perhaps better for your room, but you have to try both in your room.

It becomes a matter of taste at this level. I find the S5's wonderfully engaging and able to convey the emotion of music (atleast paired with Vitus gear). The Alexia's are much fussier speakers with room set up and can sound very average with the wrong amps. I heard the Alexia's with your amps and thought that was not a good match. But i'm not sure the S5's would be a good match with your ARC gear either. If I was going for tubes, I would lean toward the top level Vac amps.

Come to think of it, I would rank Absolare and Conrad Johnson (Art/Gat) ahead of Vac to pair with the Magico S5's. Both have great synergy.

11-21-14: Bo1972
I auditioned 2 days ago the Rockport Aquila with the Absolore best pre amp with their monoblocks. ( 50 watt) This was also not the best combo in control and authority. You could not play that loud. You lost control, tweeters became difficulties and the overall sound became less involving. Sensitivity of the Aquila is 89db.

That's an important consideration Bol. No doubt the Absolare amps sound lovely, but even robust 50 watt tube amps have limitations because an SET design can only produce so much current. In a larger room, with a moderately demanding load I advocate ss amps which sound warm and tube-like, but have high current and an efficient psu.

@Charles, I agree and not sure what I was thinking when I mentioned Vac. Lovely amps yes, and a better choice than ARC, but in valve amps they would be my 3rd choice with the S5's. In tubes, I would rate the CJ Gat and Art mono blocks 2nd (particularly in a bigger size room). But for similar money, I would personally go for a Vitus SS-102 and SL-102, together with a Vitus SCD-025 for synergy with the S5's. The SL-102 is a true balanced linestage which has a serious optional phono stage, pre-out to integrate with a surround sound processor & one the best metal remotes i've ever seen. Horses for courses as they say.

11-21-14: Bo1972
There is one thing I want to make clear. I have tested many
cables in over 16 years of time. These days it is a lot easier to create a higher end result with expensive and stunning cables with less expensive power amps. This against a very expensive power amp with less expensive cables for the same amount of money. I have proven this in many blind tests. My focus is always on the end results. This counts most.

I give you another example; I use the latest Audioquest
Redwood with the brand new AQ Wel Signature xlr cables and the Purist Audio Limited powercables. These cables give a superior level in details, blacklevel, dynamics, differences in height of a recording and a much more physical 3d image against the Meteor and Sky interconnects. This difference is huge.

With these cables you can reveal details which will not be
there even if you bought a very expensive set of speakers.

Most people who have this as a hobby play at an average level in % of the whole capability what a speaker is capable of. In 16 years of time I have showed many people that they miss a lot of what their speaker is capable of. You need a good balance in how you created your system. The most common mistake in audio is that people spend a lot of money on speakers against less money on their equipment. Be aware of this!!

Spot on. I have advocated for some time that your system needs to be balanced (and by that I don't mean using true balanced components or xlr cables, though they help). That has been my approach since I started building my new system about 2 years ago. I could have bought better speakers such as the YG Hailey, but I knew to do justice to them I would have needed separates as they need more juice, and as I couldn't afford the Vitus Sig series separates, so I thought to myself "The S5's are good enough. I'll build my system around the S5's and fully optimize my system, leaving no weak links". For example, many audiophiles ignore the importance of cables as you said, AC power, isolation and room treatments in their pursuit of better speakers. I run a Vitus SIA-025 integrated which is a peach & allowed me to spend more on my cables and isolation with one less box. I am using Jorma Prime & Statement cables. The Statement sc's, though very expensive, have been a revelation. I was shocked how much more resolving they were and how the sound stage opened up! Similarly, when I recently addressed AC power by adding a Gigawatt PC-3 SE Evo conditioner & Furutech GTX-D wpo my system moved up another level. That is why i'm confident when my system is finished it will challenge systems boasting much more impressive speakers and front ends.

@Veerapaneni, $7.5k isn't too bad. Jorma Prime xlr's are $10.5k ;)