The Audio Note speakers sound particularly good with the Audio Note amplifiers; there is synergy with their products. The local audio note guy has a reference Audio Note/Levinson system feeding a pair of top of the line type E Audio Note speakers. Ongaku/M7 preamp for phono section, Levinson reference cd transport, audio note dac 5, mostly vintage kondo interconnects/speaker wire. Best I've ever heard anywhere.
If you do acquire Audio Note speakers ensure you try them in the traditional floor position as opposed to the corner/wall placement recommended by Audio Note. The bit of bass presence you give up is more than made up by the overall tighter sound in my experience. Also, I prefer the type J speaker; seems to be more overall balanced but it is not as efficient at 93db as the type E which gets up to 98db efficiency with the external crossovers.
An excellent choice for a step up device is a traditional transformer; K/K is one choice as another poster suggested. Audio Note offers a very complete line of transformers from the 500 level up to the truly obscene level. Be careful buying vintage trannies like Dynavector and Fidelity Research; most have had their wires changed out and some not done professionally. I got screwed on a Dynavector tranny from an
Audiogon seller. Buy these things new or only from a trusted source. Stay away from active step up devices; the last thing you need is another active gain stage. Use the transformer.
And, get some good tubes for the Soro! Make sure the capacitors are upgraded to the best possible; find out if your shop has any Black Gates they will sell. You will probably want to upgrade the coupling capacitors. The speakers binding posts are plastic and can strip easily; upgrading to the Audio Note silver all metal posts is a big improvement and will easily accomodate 4mm spades.
