Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

The Audio Valve amps are indeed superb and I should have included them in my discussion (I usually do, but forgot). The 400, I believe, is one of the rare high-powered tube amps that truly sounds good. They will be expensive with the current exchange rate (assuming you are in the U.S.).

has anyone heard the Pass XA.5 upgraded class A amps??

I wonder how they would go with my Strads and how similar they sound to nice tubes in the upper frequencies.

Hi Downunder,

I have heard others say the Pass bridges the gap btwn solid and tube. I have heard the same of the CJ Premier 350...read Martin Collom's review on the net. Wow...until the Premier 350, the Krell 700cxi was one of his fav SS amps. He said the 350 bettered it by being more musical...130-point rating by Martin. 600 watts/channel into 4ohm load so plenty of power/effortless volume for a 93db efficiency Strad.

The XA.5 series is the best SS I have heard, and their 30 watt amp should be more than enough to drive the SFs plenty loud in most rooms for most people - I think it is very conservatively rated at 30 watts. THe .5 iteration is much better at delivering current into low and volatile impedance swings - should do very well with the SF in that regard. It worked superbly well with the Merlin VSMs (a much easier load the SF), and would expect the same with the SFs. Is it tubes, no - but it sure sounds good.

Funny you mention the CJ 275,because my dear friend has just gotten that amp.He has all CJ ART components,and a fully loaded VPI table/arm/Lyra Titan-i cartridge,but the speaker is different from those mentioned here.

Thsy are highly modded Infinity RS-1bs.In truth(when modded "fully",including a crossover rebuild)these are about as revealing,and dynamic as anything "popular" today!Classic design.

The CJ 275 will only run the midbass/midrange/tweeter panels(the woofer towers are run by SS Krell).They'll start to come in at above 110 hz,or thereabouts.

Previously his sound,with the older CJ big boys has been superb,and he is an old school,extremely experienced 'phile!A great listening room as well....because.....

Regardless of what one thinks the particular sonic success of "any" system is the absolute combination of room/amp/speaker.....That's it,in a nutshell!!

They are not independant of oneanother!

He is currently experiencing some set-up problems,but I should be getting in some serious listening very soon.

Best