Kharma 3.2 CRM FE and which power amp?


Hello.
I have opened few treads about CAT JL-2 Mk2 power amps and how it match to Wilson W/P 6,7 speakers.
I consider Kharma 3.2 CRM FE are very good speakers,too.
Different from Wilson but great.
My question is which power amp will be the most appropriate for this speakers? I know Tenor 75Wi is superb match with 3.2 but how would be with CAT JL-2 Mk2 or Lamm ML2/2.1? Is Tenor more rich sounding than CAT and Lamm or am I wrong? I prefer Transparent cabling in case of W/P 7 but how would be with Kharma speaker. I suppose it is not a big difference but a big enough to make mistake.
I can not go to dealer and listen to this combinations otherwise I will not ask you for help!

Thank you for your response.
Regards
Sasa
schorly

Showing 4 responses by owl

*I heard that Lamm ML2 with own 18watts dont give enough dinamics in medium listening rooms.*

Who told you this? For the record, my room is 22x40 ft. approximately and I have not experienced this to be true for what I mostly listen to at the volume levels I feel are sane. I think you would be surprised what they can do re dynamics with the Kharmas. What size is your room and what kind of music do you listen to?
Sasa

As the saying goes, everyone has an opinion, but understand that everyone has a perspective and perhaps even an agenda. I'd be careful of this when asking opinions on this forum especially without listening firstly and secondly to have a good idea of who told you this and understand what this perspective and opinion is based on as well as the history behind it. If you like you can contact me directly to discuss this.
Logenn,

Sounds like you're really enjoying my old amps, LOL! The Exquisites certainly are a far more difficult speaker to drive than the 3.2's but I can assure you the Lamm's don't lack for meeting close to the limits of the 3.2's dynamic capabilities. The power handling on the Kharma 3.2's is fairly limited anyways, I've been told 7 watts so it really can't use all that extra power regardless. The 75w OTL Tenors I owned did not do dynamics anywhere near to what the Lamms can on the 3.2's, as the Tenor amps would just give out completely on dynamic swings, losing all the low end, and collapsing utterly. I think simply looking at watts is misleading as the ML2's sound more subjectively powerful in real life than on paper compared to many far more powerfully rated amps I've had in my system. I think the secret is the output transformers but am certainly not sure of what aspect of Lamm's design contributes the most to this effect. In fact, if anyone at CES heard the Wilson Maxx2's with the ML2's they'd agree. It was sterile, mechanical, dry and dull with Lamms solid state amps until he switched to ML2's and according to many, including a TAS reviewer who was there, and reported recently in the magazine, really came alive with the big Wilsons- he preferred it to the big VTL and ARC amps. I couldn't believe how much the bass improved and became far more real in the room than I could ever imagine, with of course the beautiful midrange of the SET. Logenn, I'd make every effort to try and hear them on your 1D's if you can as I think you'd be surprised. If you lived closer, I'd drive them over to you ;^) They may not bring everything the big VTL's do to the party, but it sure would be interesting...