Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?


I am looking for recommendations for a powerful tube amp for my Strads. A powerful tube amp which truly excels at palpability, musicality but also has very good bass control (though bass control is not as 'mission critical' to me as palpability).

My current amp (see below) sounds great to my ears!...but runs out of steam much too soon.

My system today:

Zanden 5000S DAC
CJ Act 2
CJ MV60 (EL 34 tube)
SF Strads (4ohms, 92db sensitivity though impedence does dip to 2.5ohms)
Velodyne DD-18 (run in parallel)
Transparent Ref/Ref XL cabling throughout
Purist Audio Dominus PC

In addition to recommendations, any thoughts are welcome on Wavac, Audio Note, Zanden, VTL, CJ LP275...or monoblocking MV60 (EL34)? Thanks!

Lloydelee21
lloydelee21

Showing 1 response by brunogolf

I previously owned SF Extrema and now own SF Amati, and in both cases use CAT JL-1 Mono amps. Ive owned the amps now for about 5 years and they just do everything right. they are semi user friendly where occasionally will require you to solder in a resistor pack in the event of a failed tube but this happens very infrequently. I own a solder gun and do this myself as you can too once you become familier with the amp. Amps are very stable and i usually get about 2000 hours from a set of power tubes. If you have any questions feel free to email me.