Tube Amps vs Sanders ESL Amp for Electrostatics
I have not heard the ESL amp but have heard the Magtech amp driving Maggies on quite a few occasions and I think that it’s quite impressive. Several of my buddies with more experience are of the same opinion. BUT, sound quality is a personal consideration. To me this sound may not be ideal if you seek ultimate warmth, body, mid-range purity and the dimensionality you would get with tubes. The perfect balance for me would be to match the Magtech with the right tubed dac and/or tubed preamp. |
audiofool1, read this thread where Albert Porter asked a similar question & I did post my thoughts as well.... https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/sanders-10b-electrostatic |
Bombaywalla and Hew, thanks for your comments. I think it would be difficult and costly to find a good tube amp to work successfully with electrostatic speakers. That said in addition to Sanders and Coda high current amps I think there may be a few hybrid amps that make be suitable as well. As it is difficult to audition all the possible available amps, I am relying in part on the advise from my fellow Audiogon members. Thanks for your input. Regards |
A lot depends on the ESL! Sound Labs and older Quads like the ESL57 and ESL63 are good matches with tubes. Martin-Logans are designed (meaning they have a lower impedance but otherwise have an impedance curve typical of ESLs) to work with solid state; all you need to get a tube amp to run them might be a set of ZEROs (www.zeroimpedance.com). We've got customers that have been running our amps (which are zero-feedback OTLs) in this manner quite successfully with MLs for many years. |
Hello Audiopool1 I own NAT se2se amps and do have not a problem driving my Soundlab Ultimate II speakers. I think they are using the GM70 tube now but I have the older model with the 211 tube. Getting everything synergistically working together will pay great dividends. I can assure you the NAT se2se amps WILL be more than what you need to get your electrostatic speakers to sing. Hopefully this is not your first excursion into tubes but having preamp, cables, power cords, placement of your speakers will reap great rewards. I know thats pretty much the standard response around here but it took patience and a little frustration to get my system to where its at currently as far as sound goes. No more merry-go-round for me. I have no dealer or no affiliation with NAT products. Just my.02 cents. Hope it works out for you but patience and synergy is the "KEY". Hope this helps Chuckie |
I think it all starts with what electrostatic speaker (or any other speaker) you are considering. You always need to pick an amp that will drive it well and provide the tonal character you are looking for. I used a Sanders Magtech amp with two different speakers and found the match to be great with one (Maggie 1.7) and blah with my current speakers, JansZen zA2.1 ESLs. I now use a tube amp with only 40 watts/ch with the JansZens and I know of other JansZen owners also using tube amps, none over 100 watts/ch. Not all ESL speakers are an easy load for an amplifier. The JansZen zA2.1 speaker is fairly easy on the amp. The Sanders ESL amp was designed for ESL speakers that may be a difficult load. I've read a number of glowing reviews for Sanders amps with Martin Logans for example, but I've also read where some ML owners (not the flagship models) use tube amps. So, it comes back to what make and model are you considering? In the end you have to be willing to try different amps. Make the speaker selection first to drive the amp decision. |
