Davidlin,
As a long-time owner of the Amati's, I'd recommend tubes -- I'd also add that you need to give a serious listen/consideration to the Tenors (more below).
IMO, the Amatis sound wonderful with any quality amp, but really sing and make magic with tubes. For 9 months, I used Spectral Pre and PowerAmps with a tubed CJ phono stage, SME 10, and MIT Oracle cabling all around. Tight, accurate, detailed. A trifle (and we are talking subtle items here) hard and aggresive with any CD player, even tubed. Reference class, nonetheless.
Over the last month, I've since gone to a pair of the Tenor 75wi, with Jena Labs cabling. A whole different league altogether. Even with a lowly Arcam CD23T. Pure magic. A sense of ease, musicality, and *purity* of musical expression that betters in every aspect some of the other tube amps I've heard with these speakers. Vinyl on the SME is even better with the Tenors, which was mighty fine with the Spectral.
Room is a 1300 sq foot loft, with 14 ft cielings, so that system has to pressurize the entire space.
One thing to keep in mind with this tube/OTL/Amati discussion is also the gain/output drive of your source gear. For example, with 2V output from the Arcam, no problems at very loud listening levels on complex musical passages (95db+). The Tenors begin to lose a very tiny amount at the upper treble (where the Amati drops to 2ohm) with the same music, same loudness, from the CJ (only 54db gain). I will be changing to another phono preamp with more gain to bring the Tenors into a happier operating window.
The important thing, is that my listening room is HUGE (the whole loft), and the Tenors are making fabulous music as I type.
Mileage varies, but I decided that I couldn't live without the sound of the Tenors, and have since overhauled my entire system, except for the Amati's and my Grand Prix Audio racks. Heck, the level of the Tenors even encouraged me to upgrade from the SME 10 to the 20.2.
Bottom-line, the Amati+Tenor are magic. In a "normal room", IMO, it would be a no brainer.
Best wishes and congratulations on your purchase of the Amati's.
I hope yours provide as many hours and days of visual and auditory pleasure as mine have.
Tom
As a long-time owner of the Amati's, I'd recommend tubes -- I'd also add that you need to give a serious listen/consideration to the Tenors (more below).
IMO, the Amatis sound wonderful with any quality amp, but really sing and make magic with tubes. For 9 months, I used Spectral Pre and PowerAmps with a tubed CJ phono stage, SME 10, and MIT Oracle cabling all around. Tight, accurate, detailed. A trifle (and we are talking subtle items here) hard and aggresive with any CD player, even tubed. Reference class, nonetheless.
Over the last month, I've since gone to a pair of the Tenor 75wi, with Jena Labs cabling. A whole different league altogether. Even with a lowly Arcam CD23T. Pure magic. A sense of ease, musicality, and *purity* of musical expression that betters in every aspect some of the other tube amps I've heard with these speakers. Vinyl on the SME is even better with the Tenors, which was mighty fine with the Spectral.
Room is a 1300 sq foot loft, with 14 ft cielings, so that system has to pressurize the entire space.
One thing to keep in mind with this tube/OTL/Amati discussion is also the gain/output drive of your source gear. For example, with 2V output from the Arcam, no problems at very loud listening levels on complex musical passages (95db+). The Tenors begin to lose a very tiny amount at the upper treble (where the Amati drops to 2ohm) with the same music, same loudness, from the CJ (only 54db gain). I will be changing to another phono preamp with more gain to bring the Tenors into a happier operating window.
The important thing, is that my listening room is HUGE (the whole loft), and the Tenors are making fabulous music as I type.
Mileage varies, but I decided that I couldn't live without the sound of the Tenors, and have since overhauled my entire system, except for the Amati's and my Grand Prix Audio racks. Heck, the level of the Tenors even encouraged me to upgrade from the SME 10 to the 20.2.
Bottom-line, the Amati+Tenor are magic. In a "normal room", IMO, it would be a no brainer.
Best wishes and congratulations on your purchase of the Amati's.
I hope yours provide as many hours and days of visual and auditory pleasure as mine have.
Tom