Lamm, Cary and Parsifal Encore - what combo?

Hey Dennis, how are you liking the Canary 160's?

Dennis: Just tagging along on Jman's question re how you're enjoying your amps. I'm still shopping for new electronics for my Parsifals and wondered how you went about settling on the Canary 160s? What else did you try?

hey all, just saw this. I LOVE the canary's!! they blew me away. powerful, without strain on the parsifals. wonderful tone throughout without sacrificing energy or life. in fact, that's their strong suit, they have a lot of life to them. they present things forward on the stage, which i love, and i think mates well w/ the parsifals which i feel are a bit too laid back for my liking. my previous amps ran out of steam, i think partly because of my room size. the canary's have a tight bottom end that's controlled for a tube amp.

midrange of course is to die for. detail is excellent. separation of instruments is excellent, i hear zero congestion. dynamics are good but not the strong suit. i have yet to hear a tube amp that has that balls to the wall dynamics, but i also think it's partly due to the speakers i choose (electrostats, dynamic, never tried horns). that said, the canary's have more jump and excitement than most tube amps i've heard. they sound like VTLs in that way, but are more transparent and have better detail retrieval than VTL's i've heard (ST150, ST85). my previous all time favorite amp was a VAC 70/70 mk3, which i loved to death... the canary's have that same magic, altho i wish i could listen to the two amps side by side to listen to their differences. my bet is that they are much more alike than they are different.

i'm now at the point where i really WANT to listen music. i look forward to it, which honestly it's been a while since i've had that feeling.