Dear F155:
I have Salons in my main system.
Larry Greenhill of Stereophile reviewed the Salons with 7B-ST's and was very impressed. That combo will certainly give you the oompf the Salons are capable of. At their price point, I would say that you would be hard-pressed to do better than the Brystons. I owned a 4B-ST for five years and believe it to be a fine amp with many strengths, particularly when used with top-tier interconnects and speaker cables.
The Brystons are obviously not in the very top tier of amps, however, as you certainly tend to get what you pay for in hi-fi. It sounds like they may be a stretch for your budget, but the Classe Omega and Omega Omicron stereo amps are said to work very well with Salons, as do the Pass X-600 and X-1000 monoblocks (I have no personal experience with these set ups, however). Those amps can be had used for $5,000-$10,000, depending upon the amp. As for tube amps, you would need an amp with outstanding power supplies and output transformers to get the requisite current to the Salons -- the best I am aware of in this regard are the CAT amps, either the stereo version or monoblocks, which have a relatively modest watt-per-channel rating of 100 w.p.c. continuous, but the figure is meaningless because of their outrageous power supplies and incredible output transformers (the amp weighs nearly 200 lbs. due to the huge power supplies and output transformers). I use VAC Renaissance Mark III 140/140 tube monos with my Salons, which, like the CAT amp, have serious power supplies and output transformers (I actually run them zero feedback with great success). Both the CAT and VAC amps are very pricey, however (there is a CAT stereo amp for sale with a $8,500 asking price on A-Gon right now).
The Salons were designed using Levinson amps, but I thought the Salons sounded lifeless the two times I heard them with Levinson amps.
My Salon dealer said that a really good 200 watt per channel (8 Ohms) solid-state amp is fine on the Salons in most rooms, unless you want ridiculous sound levels. My Rowland Model 6 monos, which happen to be +/- 180 watt per channel (8 Ohms) amps, sounded really good on the Salons (remarkably similar to my VAC's), but I ultimately put them in my second system because they worked better there than the VAC's. The Model 6's go for $4,000-$5,000 used these days (more with the batteries, and they do sound best with the batteries).
Although much of the equation obviously depends upon your listening room and other components, if it were me, I would figure out a way to pair at least the CAT stereo amp, and preferably, the CAT monoblocks, with the Salons (best overall sound).
To answer your basic question, however, I would say that the Brystons are indeed a safe way to go.
Good luck.
I have Salons in my main system.
Larry Greenhill of Stereophile reviewed the Salons with 7B-ST's and was very impressed. That combo will certainly give you the oompf the Salons are capable of. At their price point, I would say that you would be hard-pressed to do better than the Brystons. I owned a 4B-ST for five years and believe it to be a fine amp with many strengths, particularly when used with top-tier interconnects and speaker cables.
The Brystons are obviously not in the very top tier of amps, however, as you certainly tend to get what you pay for in hi-fi. It sounds like they may be a stretch for your budget, but the Classe Omega and Omega Omicron stereo amps are said to work very well with Salons, as do the Pass X-600 and X-1000 monoblocks (I have no personal experience with these set ups, however). Those amps can be had used for $5,000-$10,000, depending upon the amp. As for tube amps, you would need an amp with outstanding power supplies and output transformers to get the requisite current to the Salons -- the best I am aware of in this regard are the CAT amps, either the stereo version or monoblocks, which have a relatively modest watt-per-channel rating of 100 w.p.c. continuous, but the figure is meaningless because of their outrageous power supplies and incredible output transformers (the amp weighs nearly 200 lbs. due to the huge power supplies and output transformers). I use VAC Renaissance Mark III 140/140 tube monos with my Salons, which, like the CAT amp, have serious power supplies and output transformers (I actually run them zero feedback with great success). Both the CAT and VAC amps are very pricey, however (there is a CAT stereo amp for sale with a $8,500 asking price on A-Gon right now).
The Salons were designed using Levinson amps, but I thought the Salons sounded lifeless the two times I heard them with Levinson amps.
My Salon dealer said that a really good 200 watt per channel (8 Ohms) solid-state amp is fine on the Salons in most rooms, unless you want ridiculous sound levels. My Rowland Model 6 monos, which happen to be +/- 180 watt per channel (8 Ohms) amps, sounded really good on the Salons (remarkably similar to my VAC's), but I ultimately put them in my second system because they worked better there than the VAC's. The Model 6's go for $4,000-$5,000 used these days (more with the batteries, and they do sound best with the batteries).
Although much of the equation obviously depends upon your listening room and other components, if it were me, I would figure out a way to pair at least the CAT stereo amp, and preferably, the CAT monoblocks, with the Salons (best overall sound).
To answer your basic question, however, I would say that the Brystons are indeed a safe way to go.
Good luck.