What SS amp do you use with your SF Line 3?


I tried everything from Pass X-350 to Rowland 8TiHC, but none of them sounded good with my SF Line 3SE. I know impedance matching is critical when mating tube pre with SS power, but SF Line 3 has very low output impedance and should be easy on amp choices. I was getting thin midrange and flat sound, not very musical at all regardless the speakers I hook them up to. In comparison to ARC LS-15 which I used to own, it always sounded musical regardless what amp I used and ARC had much higher output impedance!

So short of getting a SF power amp which will guarantee matching, what do you guys use? My speakers are Sonus Faber Amati Homage which will need some power to drive, but will sound fine if tube amp is able to handle 4 ohm load. I don't play loud and I listen to mainly classical and jazz, so absolute bass control is not as critical. I will prefer SS over tube because of room arrangement, I also do not want my kids to get burned. Last thing is I much prefer having XLR input so I can continue using my AQ Diamond interconnect.

Thanks,

David
semi
Have you considered that it may not be the amp? I know there are differences between the models, but in my SF Line 1 replacing the stock tubes with NOS 7308s changed the sound from similar to what you describe (I called it dry and somewhat brittle) to palpable and lush, though not to the point of being syrupy. It is not what I equate to a "tubey", but it is certainly less sterile and analytical than the stock sound.

It was also not necessary to use NOS tubes in all the sockets. Replacing the pair in the rearmost bank (final gain stage?) had 95% of the effect of replacing them all. At first I had Amperex World Globes in all three banks. Later, hearing about the "rear bank only" approach I replaced the two forward pairs with Sovteks. There was very little change. That this worked so well was important from an expense perspective as it allowed using better tubes without going broke in the process. Let's not even get into the problem of finding a quantity of a particular NOS tube!

If this is old news to you please accept my apology for burning bandwidth. In any case, good luck in finding a solution.
As some of you pointed out, replacing tubes will make a big difference. My Line 3SE came with Siemen NOS which should be million times better than Russian tubes, but I found the sound to be dry and thin at best. I put in some $8 Jan Philip 6922 and it instantly became warmer and fuller, but I had loud popping noise when I switch to mute and forced me to go back to Siemen. But my pre amp only has 30 hours of usage so far, maybe even less, so I am not sure if I am jumping the conclusion too early. It may have 200 hours of standby time, but I don't think standby current is enough to burn in the tubes.

So this Bel Canto thing is that good?
Usually if the unit doesn't sound OK with stock tubes and "needs" NOS it is poorly engineered unit. It's the same thing as I could say that I can play soccer good in Adidas boots but cannot play with Nike.

Stand-by current is good enough for tubes. On the new tubes it is essential to idle the amps even overnight and than start listening. Further-on idle the small signal tubes for 10...20 minutes before passing any signal and before every listening.

Aso try to damp your tubes with the tube dampers to see the result. Placement of your tube preamp maybe essential as well. Make sure it's not located above the power amplifier and mates only with small signal components.
IMO I love for the small signal SS and drive speakers with tubes. That's where you get passive-like transperency in the small signal and the signature of a tube drive.
You might also try Plinius M16 preamp with powerful tube amps such as VTL MB450, VTL MB250, Manley Reference 250 or ARC VT200 that will drive your speakers at ease.
Not a direct answer to your question, but I also changed the rear most set of tubes (put in a pair of RCA tubes) and was very impressed with the improvement. I then changed the rest to Amprex, and really could not tell a difference. I use the Anthem Amp2, and am very happy with the sound.