Tube amps good with Emerald Physics CS2 speakers?


Hello everyone. I just bought a pair of Emerald Physics CS2 speakers, I know that these speakers need to be bi-amped, and I am now looking for the amps with which to drive them. I spoke to Clayton, (the designer of these speakers), on the phone, and he said that for the lower frequencies, that the CS2s need at least 100 watts to be driven effectively on the low end, and so then he recommended that I use a solid-state amp in order to drive the low frequency woofers, and so I will look for a good solid-state amp to drive the woofers of the CS2s on the lower frequencies. I also asked him about what type of amp I should use for the higher frequencies, but he would not give me a recommendation as to whether or not I should use tube amps or solid-state amps on the high frequency tweeters, saying that he had customers who were doing both and were happy with them. And so, I am asking my questions to and referring my questions to you guys who already own these speakers and who have had experience with them: can you tell me which would sound better driving the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s--tube amps or solid-state amps? Has anyone actually tried driving the tweeters of these speakers with a tube amp, and did it sound good and was the sound to your liking? And also, has anyone actually tried driving these speakers with SET tube amps, and did you think the speakers sounded good driving them with those amps, and was the sound to your liking? I was also looking at a specific tube amp to pair with the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers, and that is the Art Audio Carissa Signature 845 SET tube amp. I was told by Clayton that the power output of this SET amp would be enough to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers due to the use of the 845 tube, but he had never heard of the amp before, and so he could not say whether or not he thought that this amp would be a good match with the CS2 tweeters or not. Has anyone had any experience pairing this particular 845 SET amp with the CS2 tweeters? Has anyone had any experience trying to pair another 845 SET tube amp with the high frequency tweeters of the CS2s? And if you did, did it sound good, did you like the sound, and did it sound musical? Everyone’s input is appreciated, and all are welcome to reply, but I would especially like to hear from CS2 owners and those whom have either tried to use tube amplification in order to drive the upper frequency tweeters of these speakers and who have had experience with using tube amps with these speakers, or those who have heard the speakers before being driven separately by both solid-state amps and tube amps.

Thanks in advance to everyone who replies.
leroyc33
Hey guys. I'm in Atlanta and I heard them at Wally's. I only listened for a short while, but they were very impressive. They are making me re-think my whole system. (I feel the sickness coming on again! lol!) I believe that the amplification must use balanced outputs. Is that the case? That will certainly limit your choice of amps if that is true.
You can use XLR to RCA adapters to cure that problem. I know what you mean..a friend and I haven't felt quite right after hearing them either. LOL
I have a pair of CS-2 that I have been playing with for the last several weeks. I am very impressed. I have been given the direction that SS amps work the best with these...I am not sure why that would be the case but I have not had an opportunity to experiment yet. I am using a Wyred 4 sound 4 channel ICE based amp from Cullen in CA....it has 125w modules for the top and 250w for the bottom....it sounds very good.
I agree that the Behringer must be the weakest link and my suspicion is that improving this will have far more impact than the choice of amplification (assuming sensible choices are made here). I am looking into having the Behringer modded by Reference Audio and would be curious if anyone has done this yet and would like to commnet on the results.
I had not heard that Clayton was working on his own X-over so that might be interesting as well
I find the speakers do things like Dynamics and openess better than virtually any speaker I have had (a very long list with most in the $10k-$20k retail range) but that they lack a bit of refinement...this perspective is relative to live music as I use this as my reference...I really think the x-over must be the way to resolve this....Kyle at Reference certainly makes a strong statement that this is his belief and experience.....Fun speakers! I'm very glad I followed my insticts on this one. Can't wait to hear the $8K-$10k version Clayton is working on.
I'm trying to understand where the Emerald Physics DSP sits in the signal chain. Is it between the preamp and the amp? Is it between the amp and speakers? How does it connect into the system? Thanks.
The DSP is between the preamp and the amplifier. The amplifiers connect directly to the drivers of the speakers.