Opinions wanted on high power amps to drive Sonus Faber Extremas

Although it's not the monster in Stephen's photo, I've certainly been very happy with the W5. Now if only I could find a second at a reasonable price!

 

Parkandbike,
I would have mentioned the W7 monos - but they are fairly serious money - as well as extremely powerful!
Have heard the W5 driving some Dyns that truly eat power @ 4ohms and was very impressed.

 

Creek A52SE power amps, bridged to monoblocks(250 watts). Superb amps, difficult to find though.

 

Short experience powering Extrema

Worked my way round powering these spkrs a few yrs back. Judged by classical and some blues. I had a limited range of amps available for testing/ borrowing adn some of these obscure. Anyway, here's the spiel FWIW.

Krell then current (can't remember which): somewhat sterile sound, no problem whatsoever driving the spkrs -- a pleasant surprise. An older class A Krell KSA 50(?) mentioned above faired much better -- less pronounced upper mids and less instrusive highs.

MF "1000" or s/thing like that (huge): no comment to make, s/thing was wrong or I did s/thing wrong or both. (Befuddlingly muffled.)

Accuphase classA 50's: better than Krell, still somewhat clinical: As if all the sounds were there, but the music was missing. I didn't do any measuring to understand what "sounds are there but music is missing relates to in real life -- so, I hope I'm making some sense here.
Still, great for blues (even tried some rock).

KR Antares (a tube integrated): much better but underpowered. Had to listen at low standard volume to retain dynamics. I went looking for similar -- but with higher output power.

KR monos (610? tubes): great stuff. This was starting to make Mahler sound more like himself and less like J. Strauss restaurant b/ground music. Exhorbitant price at the time (I think KR has come up with cheaper higher power alternatives since then)

YBA "passion 1000": the first seriously good ss experience. It was all there, albeit with very slightly pronounced mid-highs (say ~7-8kHz). Ruinously expensive, big.

Symphonic Line "Kraft 250" classA: now we're going places. Like the YBA but w/out the slightly pronounced highs and with slightly more palpable midbass. I.e. a big tenor or a baritone sounded voluminous as he should be. Ridiculously priced and outrageously big & heavy (~65kg).

Vincent class A mono x2: a cheapo german design made in China. We tried this for laughs. We stopped laughing while it played. Excellent, while it lasted. Not comparable to KR, YBA, Symphonic (nor to Accu & Krell where these kicked posterior) but, for the price (Euro: 3k or close -- I remember!) unbeatable. Unfortunately, also unreliable then, one channel kicked the bucket. Maybe more reliable now.

"Digital" amp: Sanyo (I think). Transistor radio sound. Again, s/thing was definitely wrong here -- so experience not generally applicable to digi PS.

Anyway, one conclusion is that amps with medium output impedance and controlled/local feedback paired better than the others. Class A sounded better than the rest.

As I said, limited choice of amps, so hardly conclusive experience -- but hopefully indicative.

[Pre used: FM Acoustics single-ended & TVC]
Cheers

 

I have Audio Research V140 monoblocks which have ooodles of power and a great sound (£9k new). These are wired in Triode and sound superb. Fancy a swap? I've been after something different for a while too. They currently drive my Mirage M1's which are huge. They need new valves as one has blow (curses), but I'd be happy to give you £350 extra to cover that. Dem possible of course.
Tim

 

'Music' is exactly what Accuphase do better than almost anything out there IMO...

 

ASR Emitter II will drive them nicely and sound fantastic as well. But then it is 4 boxes and weighs in at 150KG. Or go for the Bel Canto ref 1000's very samll and light and would be a pretty good match with the Extreemas.

 

Thanks for all advice to date - been monitoring. Irony irony - heard back from Sonus Faber on advice re amp for the Extremas - guess what they said: Krell FPB300 can't be bettered! Aggggggh. I am trying the Lyngdorf next week - shall report in!

 

In referring to me, I didn't see anyone making a claim about my ASR being "state of the art". As a "confused" "newbie" I'm more than happy with it's sound.

Feel free to carry on patronising though.

 

saw some vincent monoblocs were mentioned earlier. i use the latest incarnation of these (sp-t100's - they are valve / ss hybrids tho) well worth a listen in my opinion. as are the big solid state vincents - seemed to have a little more warmth than the big krells i;ve heard but give you massive amounts of grunt.

 

my apologies if you felt being referred but you haven't.... my post came after following a number of audiogon and audio asylum discussions on confusing ASR product lines. to recommend "ASR emitter" is as precise as to recommend "anything".

 

There are only two ASR Emitter amps currently in production, the Emitter II is a superb amplifier, I haven't heard the Emiter I, perhaps ATC should commission ASR to make their amps,might help the sound of their speakers!

 

Again thanks for all the advice here. Solution was an older Krell! The Extremas were tuned to the older Krell amps and as suggested earlier in this thread a KSA250 now installed sounds great - smoother sound less grainy than the later amps and a lot less money too. i do reccomend the older krells.

 

Just FYI - Krell FPB300 was introduced in 1995, some 3 years AFTER SF Extrema. So obviously, Extremas couln't have been designed around it.

That beeing said, when I visited Franko Serblin in his factory in Vincenza back in 1999, he did use Krell FPB series amps, together with Wadia 850.

If I were to look for an amp to drive Extremas today, I would check Pass x-250.5 (already mentioned) as well as Cary CAD-500MB.

 

Get a pair of second hand bryston 7b-st monoblocks for £2k and never look back.

 

Got a KAS250 and doubt I'll ever look back!

 

Look at the alternatives if you get the chance some time - you may change your mind

 

I have a superb ASR that needs a new home.

 

Give the guy a break, let him enjoy his new amplifier... :boughtMF:

 

Send it to me, I promise to give it a good home