Tekton Double Impacts

   Just to make everything a little more confusing for those considering amplification options for the DI's I thought I would add my findings to the discussion. I purchased the DI's as a downsizing move to integrate my room back to home theater and needed a speaker line with center and surrounds to add later but was hoping for a speaker that could also still satisfy the 2 channel lover inside me (Thank you Kdude66 for your time and knowledge). At heart I prefer tubes and/or simple electronics that have less parts and less opportunity to wreak havoc on the audio signal (NOS dacs, SEP amps, Vinnie Rossi LIO etc...). That being said I have known Bill D (Grannyring) for a long time and he has consistently extolled the virtues of his Lyngdorf TDAI-2170. I ended up buying it because I knew I could plug my blu ray, cable box, and fire stick into it and my wife and kids would be able to figure out how to watch movies without my help. It was a simple and elegant solution that was reasonably affordable. I also purchased Linear Tube Audio MZ2-S and got to hear the ZOTL 10 from a friend (and briefly owned the ZOTL40) as the basis of a tube based system for critical listening.
   To reiterate, I had zero intention of using the Lyngdorf as my main amplifier but after it burned in and with the room correction in place, I am dumbfounded by the sound coming from it...vivid tone, rich texture, presence, 3 dimensionality, air around instruments, fantastic imaging, great woofer control, and an absolutely silent background. I have had the misfortune of owning way too many class D amps in the past and don't think one of them has lasted more than 60 days in my system so I was not expecting what I'm getting from the Lyngdorf.  I must give a big shout out to Grannyring and have to agree with all his praise for the unit. I can say that I prefer it by a very wide margin compared to the MZ2-S driving the DI's (better tone, presence, imaging, and bottom end control). Adding the ZOTL 10 to the mix was a huge upgrade with the MZ2-S and really had much better presence, imaging, and PRAT but still lacked the tonal saturation of the Lyngdorf.
   I have taken care creating the theater room and it was built on the Fibonacci progression with dedicated circuits, and innovative room treatments hand made and installed by Dale Pitcher of Intuitive Design. Even with that, I must admit that the improvement in sound when the room correction is on is huge and definitely confirms that the room and meticulous setup play an enormous role in the quality of sound you get.
   The DI's are incredibly revealing of the differences in what you feed them and the environment they are playing in. I have seen pictures of Teajay's setup (Thank you for being a fearless kick ass reviewer) and know my setup and speaker placement is significantly different as is the construction and composition of room materials and digital source. I also know the music he tends to gravitate toward isn't the mainstay of what I listen to so I'm not surprised at all we have different preferences.  I also appreciate Charles1dad's feedback that adds to the collective experience. I admire anyone that can find audio bliss and stay there as long as he has.
   For me, the Lyngdorf experience has really opened my eyes to just how much the room influences what's coming from your speakers and expect that because of that room interaction, there will likely be great variation in what people prefer to feed the DI's.
   I do hope this thread continues to be educational for those interested in the speakers and doesn't get sidetracked by those with negative agendas.
David

@david_ten Just to clarify I don't find the MZ2-S lacking in tone but in comparison to the 2170 I find the 2170 to have deeper tonal saturation (more vivid). The difference isn't night and day but certainly noticeable. That difference might be negated by a tube change or power cable swap etc... and I don't want to take anything away from the LTA. You get a lot for your money with it. For those lucky individuals with Tung Sol round plates and unobtanium tubes, I'm sure they were able to extract more from the unit than I got. That being said, I'm in a place in life where my time is short and being able to turn on the music and be instantly in a warmed up system (I leave the 2170 on all the time) allows me to enjoy more brief, spontaneous listening sessions.
   I just wanted to give folks that are looking at pairing the DI's up with solid state a good option from someone who typically does not prefer solid state and most certainly does not typically prefer class D.

@kdude66- Totally agree the DI is a fantastic tool for an audiophile to learn what they like. I do agree with sprocket75 that putting some power behind the DI's does add some presence and "realism" and I listen at an average volume in the mid to upper 70db range with peaks in the mid 80's.
   This big SS vs SET amps brings up an important personal distinction and there aren't too many speakers out there that can sound good with  both big SS and SET. For many years I wondered what was wrong with me because I didn't feel so passionately about SET amps that people gushed over and I tried (845,211,300B, 2A3). I finally read a Nelson Pass article about distortion and found out that it's about an even split between people that prefer 3rd order harmonic distortion to 2nd order....Clearly my ears prefer the 3rd harmonic and that truly helped me make decisions about speaker choices and amplification. It was liberating to know that there wasn't something wrong with me for not loving SET.
   As far as the DI's go, they are the perfect way to find out what camp you fall in (2nd order, 3rd order, mixture of both). If you don't know which camp you fall in, pick a representative example of both topologies at the same time (if economically feasible) and find out what your ears prefer.