What amp are you using with your Zu Essences?

Has anybody paired (or heard) a Viva (Solista or Solista LT) or one of the Mastersound amps with the Zu Essence?? I'm leaning towards one of these, and want to be in the 18-20 wpc SET family of amps.

My Art Audio PX-25, a superb amp in it's own right, sounded amazing on the Essence, but alas, it runs outta steam for my rather large room.

Thoughts?

Thanks Phil... I should have mentioned that the amp I amp looking for needs to be an integrated amp, or at least a pseudo-integrated, which has an attenuator.

I do like 845s! Before the Art Audio PX-25, I had a pair Art Audio Quartet monoblocks, which were also fantastic (though not SET, but PP). Maybe a Carissa with an attenuator would work well?

Morganc... very interested in your thoughts about how the 845-based Carissa plays with your Omen Defs! Please keep us posted!

I'm Having fantastic results with Art Audio's High Current Jota amp. It's a 20-24 wpc SET amp, and this thing has the power and finesse to drive my Zu Essence effortlessly. Great, musical combination!

I was running the PX-25 with my Essence before getting the Jota. It is a great amp and matched the speakers very, very, well. For my rather larger room, I found that it ran out of gas (6 wpc) for me on challenging pieces. The reason I got the Jota was based on my very positive experience with the PX-25 (and the Quartets a while before that)! I come nowhere near running out of power now (~24 wpc).

Hey Morgan, I did not have the amps side by side, and there was a two month gap between the PX-25 leaving and Jota HC arriving. But from memory, the biggest difference I can remember is the PX-25 being slightly warmer and fuller, while the Jota is more dynamic / explosive (prob due to the headroom based on the power difference) and little more towards the neutral side. I also think I'm getting a more holographic soundstage with the Jota. Other variables in play.. the PX-25 had a Goldpoint attenuator built in, while the Jota does not. I began using a Lighter Note attenuator with the Jota. So you can see, not really apples to apples.