pluto, do you have a $$ figure you are trying to stick to? reason being, you can spend surprisingly little and have a joule / merlin setup. the joule electra vamp integrated is a great integrated and a superb match for the tsm's. i bought my integrated vamp on audiogon for $1000. it is ridiculous what they are going for compared to what you get. jud stopped making them because he was losing money on them. and they sold for $3500. pick up one of those and a used pair of tsm's and you've spent about $2,500. i cannot think of a better speaker / integrated match for $2,500. but the point is it's not just great for the money, it's great by any measure. it's the sort of thing that can make a guy scratch his head when he looks at his 5 figure otl amp. i think that setup is one of the "secrets" with the tsm's.
in fact, i'll go one further. take the vamp integrated, tsm-mm, and mate it with the parts express sub. that's what i plan to do. my room can handle a sub though so keep that in mind. i plan to setup my tsm-mm in the same room as my vsm-mm speakers (in place of) and do a little comparison. integrated vamp, tsm-mm, parts express sub v. vsm-mm, joule vzn80 otl, joule lap-150 pre. huge difference in price. huge difference in enjoyment??? i will probably play with the sub with the vsm's as well. by design, there are things the tsm-mm cannot do that the vsm-mm can but i expect it to be a super setup.
bobby has said on more than one occassion that the tsm-mm actually betters the vsm-M (not "MM") from 50hz up. keep that in mind when thinking through what level of performance you are getting with the tsm-mm versus other things you are considering.
in fact, i'll go one further. take the vamp integrated, tsm-mm, and mate it with the parts express sub. that's what i plan to do. my room can handle a sub though so keep that in mind. i plan to setup my tsm-mm in the same room as my vsm-mm speakers (in place of) and do a little comparison. integrated vamp, tsm-mm, parts express sub v. vsm-mm, joule vzn80 otl, joule lap-150 pre. huge difference in price. huge difference in enjoyment??? i will probably play with the sub with the vsm's as well. by design, there are things the tsm-mm cannot do that the vsm-mm can but i expect it to be a super setup.
bobby has said on more than one occassion that the tsm-mm actually betters the vsm-M (not "MM") from 50hz up. keep that in mind when thinking through what level of performance you are getting with the tsm-mm versus other things you are considering.