Speakers to pair with the Ars Sonum Filarmonia tube amp?

I am late to the party here, but I don;t get to these forums much given how busy I have been.

Yes, it can cost over $1,000 to update a pair of older TSMs... basically a speaker like a pair of TSM-MM would get completely disassembled, the crossover completely torn down then the speaker gets re-built. The only parts re-used in the crossover are two inductors and a couple of resistors (if possible), even the copper posts/studs in all the Cardas binding posts (which cost about $8 each!) are replaced along with the specially treated UpTone MusiCaps. New wire harnesses are fabricated with the custom spec Cardas wire Merlin used. New improved tweeters from RA (which have their faceplates removed, modified, then remounted to the tweeter - small refinements done to provide more even smooth dispersion) replace the older Morel units, then the rebuilt crossover, harness, and the drivers all put back together. New Bi-wire jumpers are fabricated from the custom spec Cardas wire harness cable, and if the customer does not have and chooses to upgrade to Master RC networks (which use $$$ Duelund capacitors that Bobby had specially made by Duelund Audio for him - which I know I have Duelund make for me - minimum order of 20 pieces for a batch too), then the upgrade gets even more expensive! Bobby never used cheap poor sounding parts, that is for sure - makes doing upgrade pricey and labor intensive.

The results though are pretty amazing though. Yes, I'm a biased observer :-) but my Black Magic TSM's (with Master RC's) sound better than a older pair of VSMs W/Super BAM except they don't go as low in the bass.

On the Ars Sonum Filarmonia... be careful if/when tube rolling (EL34s) please. The Filarmonia (and the Gran Filarmonia) are NOT the common push-pull manual bias Ultralinear or strapped triode EL34 type amplifier (90 plus percent of push-pull EL34 amps being sold today are this type of topology). The Filarmonia uses a special screen grid regulated push-pull Class A pentode circuit (self biasing or cathode bias if I recall my terminology correctly). Tubes like KT77's are not recommended (and will void the warranty if used in the amp) and if used could well eventually damage the amplifier. There are plenty of good new EL34's to choose from - stick with them - though match pairs are required for each channel (In the Filarmonia - the Gran Fila will need matched Quads), I like to use a set of matched quads in the Filarmonia. Now the designer (Ricardo Hernandez and I) think the JJ E34L sound best in the amp.... as do the other small tubes that come with it. Ricardo picks and chooses the tubes used in his amps with great care, though I do understand that some folks have their own preferences when it comes to what they want out of a tube amplifier.

Cheers
Rich Brkich

@tzh21y  Yes - it IS still possible to upgrade your Merlins to the last/latest Black Magic version. I have been doing Black Magic upgrades on VSM and TSM speakers exactly to Bobby's (Merlin's) specs (down the the solders used and the torque settings for the screws) for a couple years now for VSM and TSM owners.

NOTE THAT There are a finite amount of Black Magic upgrades left that I can perform. UpTone who made the capacitors that are the core of the Black Magic upgrade, has left the capacitor making business early this year (for a number of reasons, including materials costs). I bought out all the caps they had left that I could use (i.e of the values needed for TSM and VSM crossovers) to do upgrades, but that was only enough parts to do about 14 pairs of speakers. I have enough left to do only 8 more pairs at this moment. Once those parts are gone - that will be it for exact Merlin spec Black Magic speaker upgrades.
If demand is there, I will look into finding a good (better I would hope) substitute, but then that would not be Bobby's spec but what I would envision he would be happy with sound wise. However, given what I have been told about the increasing material costs that go into making these types of capacitors (which use specialized films from Europe which are wound to make the caps), anything I will likely wind up finding as good or better will be a good deal more expensive than what the Uptone caps cost which will drive up the upgrade costs (maybe too much for it to be worth doing if the increase is significant and the improvement is not as significant).