Tube Amps for Revel Salons


I'm thinking of going back to tube amps. I would either have to sell my first generation Revel Salons or find a suitablr tube amp that works well with them. I love these speakers, but they do require a certain amount of power to bring out the best in them. Anyone driving these with tubes? What do you recommend? What is the minimum power you would use? Or should I just sell them and get speakers that are more tube friendly? Thanks.
prairiedog
I use the Rogue M-180 monoblocks with KT 120 output tubes to drive Martin Logan Summits electrostats which are a notoriously difficult load and I love the results. Definitely not to tubey, made in America and not to expensive.
Let me give you an inexpensive option. I am currently running this package and I'm very happy with it. Prima Luna mono blocks on the top of the Salon's and a solid state amp on the bottom. I tie the two together with a dbx driverack that has been adjusted using rta and microphone. I was switching back and forth between SS and tubes depending on what music I was listening too that evening. I grabbed my driverack from my pa gear just for grins to see how it would sound using it as a crossover and never took it out of the system. That was my experience. The driverack used you can buy for about 200-300 depending on what series. Hope this gives you some food for thought. I now have the wonderful mids of tubes with the power and punch of solid state.
We have a customer with a set of MA-1s that raves about the combination. I would have expected that he would have needed more power but that does not seem to be the case.
I'm very satisfied with a pair of Carver VTA 180 mono's driving my Avalon Eidolons. More than enough power with solid full bass and a luscious presentation. American made point to point wiring, no wire boards or crimp connectors. Easy to bias the six cool running tubes per mono with a seven year transferable warrantee.
I would recommend the parasound JC-1s they are nice sounding they do out off some heat which is why I got rid of mine but they sound pretty great for their low-ish price. Or a pass x350.5 would be nice as well