Tube amp to drive MBL 101's

Tireguy, I heard the 800 GTR's with Nova Utopias..nothing small about those guys. Each chasis covers 8 square feet of floor space, times that by four and you still need another 8 feet for their reference pre, took up half the living room floor! Larry from Hi end has a pair, got a spare 80K?

Why not try the VTL Siegfried.

I spoke with Ken Stevens yesterday, and he mentioned that the CAT amps pair very well with the MBLs. I own the CAT JL-1 Limited Edition monoblocks, and I can tell you that they are exceptionally powerful. While I have not heard the JL-3 monoblocks, I would expect that they would be a good match.

There's only one tube amp on the planet that can drive the mbl 101's. CAT JL3's. Yes the JL1's can drive them too but I'm talking about current production amps. What everybody here is missing is the linear power delivery and current capability. No matter how many "watts" an amplifier has if its transfer function is non linear by nature the amplifier will crap out after the first few watts whether or not there are 500 more watts on hand. The CAT amplifier delivers clean, linear power that makes it effectively more powerful than amplifiers rated at five times its power. As far as current delivery is concerned, the other amps mentioned here including the giant Tube Research Labs amps fall far short of the mark set by CAT. So technically the CAT is the superior amplifier and what do you know, when you listen to it the damn thing sounds better than either the VTL or Tube Research or any other tube stuff that I ever heard that sounds veiled and bloated compared to the CAT.

That's kind of a bold statement, any specs. or way to back your statements? I am not a "fan" of VTL amps like Mejames is, but I do appreciate what they are capable of. The same goes for Tube Research labs and CAT(I had a very long listening session with a prototype JL-2 a few years ago and left VERY impressed). I am not trying to stir the pot but I find it VERY hard to believe that the Tube research labs and VTL's would be inferior to the CAT's- perhaps a different flavor but at this some what insane price range its all about synergy and personal preference.