Amp For Sopras

I have the Kanta floor stander ones, and my dealer is recommending McIntosh C2800 preamp with MC312 power amp for my use case. Which is obviously not the brand you prefer and above your range.

But in my case, I only live once, and also my beautiful wife is okay with me going way, way, way above of my original budget of zero dollars.

So, I’m doing it, and I think it’s cheaper in the long run to get the most expensive stuff right away - than losing money on constant upgrades. Good luck with your search!

@jaybe @hk_fan 

I know you're ruling out the Michi S5 based on weight, and it is significant, but if you can overcome it, I'm really enjoying it. It's been worth the hassle. I've got a few hundred hours on mine and it's fantastic. Hours on end of listening with no fatigue through some old Kappa 9s. I'm completely blown away - it transformed the Kappas from what I was used to (Peachtree GaN400 because I needed something with significant grunt for a reasonable price at the time, knowing it wasn't great). Yes, I know there are other factors.

I'm partially making this post so people that might search for "Michi S5" can find information because it was hard to come by when I was researching.

Cheers!

You will probably get a million different opinions, so I will give you my opinion based on ownership of a few different amps. Both amps I am recommending are not bright at all. They gave me many hours of non fatiguing music enjoyment with great detail, without sounding clinical. Smooth is my best description.

1) Atmasphere Class D mono amps. 100W should be more than enough to drive your 8 ohm speakers. They run very cool (if temperature is an issue) and have a tube like warmth.

2) First Watt SIT-3 (only used available at this time) or maybe better for your 89 dB sense speakers and within your price range is the SIT-5. I owned a SIT-3, but believe the SIT-5 is a mono amp version with more power. Built by Nelson Pass (of Pass Labs) and you get a real bang for the buck compared to the price of the Pass Labs amps.

Both are high quality builds and have above and beyond customer service. Questions usually answered by the builders themselves, Nelson Pass and Ralph Karsten 

Parasound amps are pretty warm sounding. The JC5 might suit your needs. 

@OP The Sopra is efficient but it is has a difficult modulus of impedance and the combination of that and its tendency to brightness does not make it well suited to tube amps. Passlabs Class A amps would be a good match in terms of their ability to drive difficult loads.