Best Integrated amp for Wilson Audio Sasha

Keihr,

You are absolutely right. Even Sasha reviewer (John Atkinson, I believe) noted strongly that this is most power hungry amplfifier from all Wilson speaker line.

I don;t have Sasha so I don;t want to give any advise - as oppose to these people who states "I don;t have this speaker but..."

I owned Watt/Puppy V and I know more or less what power in right amplifier can do with Wilson's toys. I own now, also not easy (at all !!!) to drive B&W 802 Diamond and despite my love for tube equipment, my Spectrons are the best I auditioned (also I matched them with Joule-Electra "300") but they are not as expensive as other suggested here so will not be tested I am sure.

As a rule, integrated is of low power of even when with high power rms specs is of low or even very low headroom.

Mark Levinson No 33 monoblock was "only" 300 watts rms but weighted more then 400 lbs - so big his power transformer (*and asssociated headroom) was.

Good Luck

"I don't think it is a matter of pure wattage/power as how stable will the amp be into a low impedance load. The Sashas dip down to 1.8 Ohms in the bass which can give some amps trouble. Also, sometimes more watts don't mean better sound. For example, I used to have a McIntosh 400 wpc amp. But my 100 wpc Lamm hybrid amps sound MUCH better with my Sashas."

You probably mean under "pure wattage" the tms power at 7/5 Ohm load given as specs. Yes, in this case you are absolutely right. When I say power I really mean peak power or headroom with as low level of distortions as possible.
Probably the peak power as well as amount of current delivered by your LAMM added substantially to the magic of this amplifier as compared to your previous one, McIntosh 400

Correction: I meant above 8/4 Ohms load and power in "rms"
My apologies for typo errors

Hifinut,

May be JTinn being distributor can arrange for you home audition of Dartzeel 8550 ?
I have no doubt that this great amp is stable at 1.8 Ohms load. What would be my concern is that if it operate at 450 watts at 2 Ohms then its current would be 15A...which is not that great....but if you love flute concertos or country music it may work fantastically well for you.

You can arrange Spectrons for 30 days or for 60 days if you wish home audition.

Nothing bit home audition. No pressure, you have time - its the best. You have great speakers, one of the best in the world and you have a chance to make extraordinary system... just don;t be lazy

Good Luck

" Raquel- Sashas efficiency is misleading. They spend most of there time below 4 ohms with some tough phase angles"

I disagree and strongly, sorry. Amp/speakers will produce loudness exactly as Raquel predicted (I bet she was a good student at school).

Probably sound quality will be "slightly" below of that Vladimir Horowitz or Eugene Ormandy would expect but listening to this ultra expensive combo ($25k + $25k) one with the wallet (but no ears) will be highly satisfied and will have something to show his/her non-audiophile friends

"Dob- I don't know what you are saying, but the speaker is not particularly easy to drive"

Hello Keith - it is poorly written joke. Efficiency is related to air pressure of sound not its quality...

Sorry, of course, you are right - sound quality at certain frequencies will be much worse then at other due to difficult loads.