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Amp for Sonus Faber Elipsa SE

Hello,

Any recommendation for an amplifier for Sonus Faber Elipsa SE?

Would you select tubes or solid state?

Thanks.
pkelly1504
no_regrets
362 posts
 
At this year's Axpona Audio Show in Chicago (O'hare actually) I was extremely impressed with how musical the Sonus Faber Lilium Loudspeakers sounded with the AMG v12 as the source driven by the latest Audio Research GS Preamp and GS150 power amp. I felt it to be the best sound of the show and visited the room several times during my 3 day stay there.  I'm not sure how the Lilium compares electrically speaking to your Elipsa SE, but the Audio Research GS150 amp was a match made in heaven with the Lilium speakers.

Good luck and enjoy your search!
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
pkelly1504Hello & thanks for the responses.

Would the best option be to buy tube mono blocks with the most power for the $$?


No, just throwing tube watts at them is not the answer. Wattage is not the answer here, current is, and for that you need what Stereophile is saying and recommended. Amps like these, Mark Levinson No.33, Boulder 860 and the Parasound JC1’s these are all bi-polar (bjt) output amps. Only then will you get control over these speakers, especially in the bass.

A really great amp for these even though party loudness music would be out, and to show you wattage is not the answer, would be the old massive 1977 Mark Levinson ML-2 mono blocks another John Curl design "real current pushers", they are only 25w each but they keep doubling that wattage down to .5ohm.  


Amps that can "almost" double their wattage into each halving of impedance, means they have good current delivery eg: 8ohms=100w 4ohms=200w 2ohms=400w. When an amp can almost do these halving = doubling figures then it is capable of giving good current delivery.

Cheers George

doitwithlife's avatar
doitwithlife
98 posts
 
Curious if anyone has tried the PS-Audio  BHK Signature 250 with these?

Doubles down to 500W at 4 ohms and being a hybrid it in theory has the tube flavor, although I've not been able to audition one

My thought was to do this amp and do without a pre as the DAC allows input and column control
atg's avatar
atg
1 posts
 
pkelly1504 ;

I own a pair of Elipsa SE in red color. I power them with a Mark Levinson 333. It is a 600 watt (RMS) at 4 ohms, the speakers nominal rating.
Bass control is absolute and imaging and resolution is great. I couldn't be happier with them.
Prior to the Elpsa SE I used the same amp with Sonus Faber's Guarneri Memento and overall their sound was very similar to the Elipsa SE exept in the bass, sensitivity and achievable loudness. Unfortunatelly, due to to a defective remote control on an occasion the volume started going up by itself and before I could switch the amp off I blew both Guarneri's woofers...
The ML 333 is an old amp, from 1999 but it holds itself against modern, high end amps. Price, however, is low.
If plan to purchase one remeber to check if their capacitors are not leaking as this will reflect in bass control. If they leaked they should be changed for new ones available in the internet. Exchanging them is not a difficult job.

Good luck !

Andre

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