Nola Viper Owners, Lend Me Your Amps


Hey all, I've been trying to do this on my own without a whole lot of success. I even sent Nola an email about amplification and got no response. I guess Carl didn't want to come off as biased towards one product or another, and that's cool.

I have been going back and forth between tubes and solid state gear for my Nola Viper IIa's. I've heard all the claims that Nola/Alons sound best or are viced with tubes, but I see that they also require a good deal of power to sound their best. As a result, I have been strongly considering the tube preamp, solid state power amp combo.

I'd like to know a couple of things; if I go tube power amp, how much tube power is required for the Nolas. If I go solid state can say, 125 watts do the job? Also, what are you guys using, all tubes, tube/ss combo, all solid state, and why?

For some info, I listen to all types of music, but I am a huge fusion fan where I listen to Jean Luc Ponty, Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and the like, so the music is hard driving and dynamic a lot of the time. However, I like my vocals too, both male and female, so the midrange has to be up to snuff as well.

Amps I've considered so far: Rogue, Dehavilland, Primaluna, Musical fidelity, McCormack, McIntosh, Primare and Emotiva. The only one that I have not heard is Primaluna.

Budget? I'm really trying to buy used but I will cough up the new price dough if there is a piece of gear that I decide that I have to have.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to responses.
hawk28
Carl always uses (only?) Audio Research at shows, no? That is a pretty good indication of what he would recommend.
"I even sent Nola an email about amplification and got no response." Hopefully, he is just slow to respond, or maybe out of town.
"I guess Carl didn't want to come off as biased towards one product or another, and that's cool."
IMHO, this would not be a valid excuse.
I recently heard a Pathos Hybrid amp on a pair of Avalons.
It is one of the best non-tubed amps I have heard.
Best of luck in your search.
I have the Alon Lotus Elite, which are the predecessors to your Nola Vipers. I'm using a Classe 15 & Cary SLP-2002 to good effect right now.

I've also used Threshold Stasis 2, Jeff Rowland Model 3s, & Belles 350A for amps. All had plenty of power and musically involving with the Lotus.

I've also used the following preamps: Threshold SL-10, Belles 28A, Jeff Rowland Consonance, McCormack RLD-1, Rogue 99 Magnum and Threshold Fet 1 to good effect. The Belles was the best of that lot and may yet stay. Still have some other preamp candidates to try.

Haven't tried a tube amp, but I have a Rogue 88 Magnum that I'm going to try. But having a tube pre and ss amp seems to make a lot of sense with them. IMO, high-powered tube amps are just too difficult to deal with for the most part.

Hope that helped!

Jeff
Thanks for your responses. Pubul, didn't really know that Carl used Audio Research exclusively at shows, but thats good to know.

FJN, I have started to explore Pathos, thanks for the tip.

Willie, you've got a lot of experience with a lot of equipment. Is the tube pre ss power your favorite combo?