Egglestonworks Andra II: How difficult a load?

It is very difficult to give any opinion in these principally individual and perception based hobby. What is dynamic for one, could be sleepy and boring for other. A friend of mine has the Egglestonworks Andra II. He was really struggling to kick out dynamism and attack from these monsters. These are very difficult speakers. He had first Antique Soundlab 600 watt tube monoblocks, recommended by Salvatore, for difficult speakers. He had a nice flowing musical soundprint, but with somewhat pompous, slow bass. Whenever he came over to hear my old and outdated active speakers, he went home saying that his system is just not up to the task to deliver dynamism and attack. He changed his power amps to Spectorn Musical IIISe. Still, he felt that the Andras still were sluggish and boring. Finally, adding an another Spectron and converting them into monoblocks and thus pumping whopping 1800 watts he finally arrived to the same level of dynamism what an old active speakers could deliver. Rest of his gears are a nice vinyl rig and EMM Labs digital rig. I hope this helps.

Ajahu, I never had the problem you were describing in your post. It most defently is not a speaker issue, I would look else where within the set-up, or possibly it could be a room issue. Now I'm not saying that they are not a easy speaker to wake up to get the best out of them. What has me puzzled is that you mention after inserting another Spectron amp "1800 watts" he finally arrived to same level as your old active speakers. What active speakers are you speaking of. I was over at a person's home who had Cardas speaker cables hooked-up and the sound was boring, sluggish but after just making this one change the system did a 360.

Dev, this is a very subjective hobby. But, the most critical link, according to my opinion, is to find the right amplification for a given speakers. That is where the crucial synergy necessary. If one does not have the right synergy, no source or cabling or any other typical high-end sound treating tricks helps. My goal was to support Kurt-tank opinion, and warn Robal that he may need to invest heavily into amplification, especially if he likes blues/pop and not lush and romantic sound of violin sonatas. Actually, your example is also underlines this opinion. I am sure that with 600 watt monoblocks you also don"t not have any problem to drive these speakers. But may be there are some differences between a 100 watt tube amplification and 600 watt solid state monsters.

I always found that Cardas is boring and sluggish. About amplification....Ayre makes some super fine amps.

Most everyone is mentioning amplifiers. I think that the preamplifier is just as important. I own a pair of Egglestonworks Andra II's, which are being driven by a pair of Pass Labs 600.5 monoblocks. When being driven directly by my Wadia cd player or with a former Pass Labs X 0.2 preamplifier or with a former Audio Research Reference 3 preamplifier in the chain, the speakers can sometimes be slightly "bass shy", unless driven above about 87db as measured on my Radio Shack db meter. However, I'm starting to think that the preamplifier matters as much or more than an amplifier. I have a new Pass Labs XP-10 preamplifier in the system now and I have never seen my bass drivers move as much as they do now, even at lower volumes. Just a thought, but changing to a different preamp may help as well. Disclaimer: I am a Egglestonworks, Wadia and Pass Labs dealer. Best regards, Stan