Advice re the use of OTL amps vs others

Broadstone concerning your query as to whether an Atma-sphere S30 is enough, I DO recall a thread regarding their use with the MM Decapo with some saying yeah others nay, not enough power. Given your room size I think you are on the fringe, it again would depend on your musical tastes and levels that you that you require. I do recall that Ralph mentioned that many of his customers use the S30 with Decapos which are essentially the same design and probably the same electrical characteristics or close at least. I would think 30 watts is pressing it and would go for the mono 60 watt amps if considering an OTL.

So far as the characteristic sound of your Cary vs a an OTL in general very different presentation. In my experience, I've owned 2 OTL amplifiers, that when mated with the right speaker they are certainly worthy of consideration, heat factors aside. The transients and rise time on an OTL are more like real music, very fast and dynamic. You are not going to get that added warmth that the Cary delivers. I feel OTLs can get closer to the sound of real music but it DOES take care in selection of matching ancillaries. The added transparency can work against you if this is not addressed properly. And yes, they can present the best of both worlds whereas cheaper SS designs have a tendency towards dryness and a 2 dimensional character there is a wide variation in the presentation of tube amps as well. So far as an OTL there is no substitute for listening for yourself. btw, the Atma-sphere amps I've listened to, always in unfamiliar systems, have just been superb in every way.

Broadstone I don't want to give the impressions that OTLs lack warmth but that some tube amps ADD warmth that isn't really there as appealing as it may be. Bottom line is that you have to decide for yourself again there is no substitution for listening.

My caveat about the S30 would be relative to your room size, I speak from experience on this matter. About 15 years back I was using a 25 watt OTL that worked quite well that is until I moved my set-up into a larger room. Room size fyi was/is 20X18X10 opening into a 12X8X10 adjacent area. Not enough power for some music. I also purchased a Speltz zeroformer to help deal with this issue but found the only satisfying setting at the lower multipliers changing the multiplier upward greater than 2X the sound became more SS like and lost much of the harmonics and texture that I liked about the amp in the first place. Bottom line is while I liked the amp a lot without the autoformer it just wasn't enough power for me. Just something to consider.

Thanks Al for your comments. With regard to the autoformer and the Transcendent amplifier you very well may be right, different topologies and tubes used. Interestingly enough, the gentleman I sold the autoformer to was using an Art Audio tube amplifier with 6c33 outputs. It too was recommended to him because of power issues. Never did find out out it worked out in his application. I really wanted to like it as I spent some time making several purpleheart cases for the autoformer for myself and another autoformer owner and invested in some nice edison price posts to easily change the turns settings. The things sat around for years before I finally sold them as the cases were so pretty.

Whatever "accurate" is eh Unsound? I too love the Sonus Faber "Extrema" and Apogee Scintillas as examples but that "nebulous" of terms "accurate" as applicable to an audio system is well....nebulous, which is to say, seems like an accurate way of describing it, at least to me. I only find accurate in the concert hall and would have to trust the mixing engineer to tell me that a given monitor is accurate in reproducing what he hears in a recording studio. Some are better than others so who do you trust? You can only trust what you hear. Hearing is unique among the senses in that we all perceive and value things differently and most importantly those values, judgements and perceptions more often than not can't be measured. So what we're left with is reconciliation of the measurements with what we hear. Better to keep it simple to my way of thinking, I personally don't want to be limited to a speaker design that is limited to amplifier choices because of its electrical characteristics which isn't to say it may be viable for others.