Best matching amp for Wilson W/P6, any sudgestions

I have the Wilson/P7's and have tried the Edge,Classe,Krell, Bermaster, VTL,Quicksilver V4 monos, NAim,Lamm and Spectral amps. I Also the Mark Levinson Amps. I found that the Levinson 334 Amp the best. I was hoping to find a need for more power and therefore up grade to the 336 or the new 436. But Power and definition was not a problem. I also evaluated Preamps in various Combinations: Edge, Aestheticx calypso,Lamm,Classe and Levinson. I do not feel that tubes get the most out of these speakers. I really thought I would because of the great reviews of the LAMM and Aestheticx products. The transparency and tightness of instruments was lost. Also each Amp works differently with each preamp. Ultimately , I found the N32 Levinson preamp to work the best with the Levinson Amp and Wilson speakers. let me know what you think.

Hamburg, I did not have as many choices of amp and preamp as you did but I am not at all surprised by your choices and found myself in total agreement.

Overall I also prefer the sound of solid-state amp and preamp with the Watts/Puppies. I also found that tubes give me that magic in the midrange but at the expense of tightness and transparency as you put it. Your choices also support my findings that the Watts/Puppies demand the very best of ss electronics to really blossom.

I am also comforted by your findings that the Watts/Puppies do not necessarily demand huge power, just very clean power. I also found that high current/class A amps with stiff power supplies work best.

I think you should consider two sets of amps and two preamps. While I don't run the watt/puppies, I do run the Duettes. I too have found the Levinson to be a very good match with these speakers. In fact, I have usually run a Audio Aero Capitole direct to the ML amp with excellent results.

During the colder months of the year, I run the BAT VK 60s in mono (120 wpc) via a BAT VK5i pre-amp.

The way I see this, is that I get to enjoy the Wilson speakers both ways - so to speak. They are great, but different on tubes. They are great, but different with the ML SS amp.

In my opinion, (at least for the Duettes, but also based on my experience with Watt/Puppies) is that 100+ wpc with a good power supply is plenty with both tubes and SS. Many people want more power (and it doesn't hurt unless you drop in quality to get this power), but as Hamburg indicated above, I am in agreement that these speakers don't demand the same kind of power that other speakers do (large Thiele's for example).

FWIW the national sales manager for Wilson ran MA-1s on his Watt/Puppies for some years. As far as we've even been able to tell, Wilsons in general are an easy load for a tube amplifiers.

Free recco (and worth every penny:)
Pass X.5 or XA- similar design philosophy to Spectral
GamuT - very fleet-footed ss amps. I liked the sound with Maggies and AP Virgos ... I can't imagine them choking on Wilsons.
cheers apo