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Amps for Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage

I have a pair of Stradivaris that I love, but I´m having a little trouble finding the right amps for them. My system consists of: Emmlabs CDSA SE latest version, Clearaudio Champion Level two/ SME V/ Benz Ruby, ARC REF3, MSB 202 monos.
I have driven the speakers with a set of Pass XA 100.5 before, but they sounded compresed quite quickly. The MSB´s offer more power than the 100.5´s and sound more detailed and airy, but also leaner and brighter.
I love detail and air, but I also crawe bass slam and body in the midths and highs. I absolutly hate lean and bright sound, no matter how detailed it might bee.
I have owned quite a lot of Krell gear in the past. I liked the bass of the ols stuf like the KSA s series + the first FPB stuff. The rest of the frequency range however, sounded rough and "solid state" to me. I liked the detail of the MCX 450´s, but they sounded to lean in the low frequences to me. I have tried tube amps as well, but I have not yet found a pair that did´nt sound like tubes in the bass region
So I am dreaming of a set of amps that delivers a full bodied, warm but detailed sound with bass slam and bass detail as well.
Any recomendations ?
NB: English is not my native language, so I hope for your understanding if my spelling is off !
0461
onemug
784 posts
 
0461,

Interesting. Let us know if the 160.5's do it for you.
johnb30
25 posts
 
My pair of XA160.5 just got in ! The sound is very good but it still needs some break in time. Does anyone knows how long it takes for full brake in ?
The Strads also have about 600 hours of playing.
0461 OP
18 posts
 
The pair of 100.5 I had, kept on improowing for the first 200 hours. After that I am not sure if the improovments were psykological or real !
johnb30
25 posts
 
I'm haveing about 250 hours of playing and it still needs to improve. The improvments until now are minimal...so i think it will be a boom of performance at about 5-600 hours or something...there are 6 caps of 25.000uF which need to be full bruned in for full performance.
larryi
3,717 posts
 
A friend has a pair of these speakers. I really like its overall tonal balance, ability to deliver the proper density of sound (harmonic structure) and the lack of artificial edge or brittleness. Overall, a terrific speaker.

The slight shortcoming with this speaker, like a LOT of other speakers, is that it is not the last word in liveliness and ability to deliver the kind of explosive attack that other kinds of speakers (like horns or full range drivers) can deliver. I would try an OTL amp with the speaker. OTLs have a way of bringing to life speakers that are slightly "polite." If I were you, I would audition something like the Atmasphere and Joule amps.
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