Is solid state on the brink of extinction?

Hmm, I remember hearing the Scintillas at the Audible Difference in the 80's. I was impressed with the volume and power, but I remember that when they switched over to the Timpanies that my ears gave a sigh of relief! The voices and music were just...better. At least far more enjoyable.

My wifes comment was that the Apogee was like a brash malt and the Timpany like a fine wine.

At the time they were powered by BIG Mark Levinson Amps.

I was pretty soured on Apogee until I heard the Duetta's at another store 4 years later. Now that was a presentation! I guess set-up is everything.

I have been told that the Spectron Musician II drives the Apogee Scintilla quite well; at least that owner thinks so.

Muralman, I don't know how you came to interpret my last statement to mean that here is always an advantage to latter production speakers. BTW I certainly do not think there is always an advantage latter production amplifiers either. I've heard remarkably good low and high impedance systems but none can yet truly get the sound of music quite right. That's all I meant really. I am truly glad you have found a combination that evokes so much passion. In fact I'd love to hear it! I never liked SETs until I heard the right setup either. You congratulate Ecclectique for being one of the few people who have heard the Scintilla properly powered. And that is part of the problem: so few of us can hear for ourselves and make our own judgments regarding your claims. I have found that any speaker sounds much better "properly powered". Only most speakers have a greater range of "proper" amplification choices than your Scintillas, allowing for more individual tastes and preferences to be considered (ie row E or H from your listening chair?) Not to mention choice of Pre-Amp. What is the rest of your system besides the eAR and the Scintillas? For the record I'm running koetsu/triplanar/delphi V, Shanling SCD-T200 and MD 108 front ends into an HP 100 to JA 100s to W/P 7s. Just ordered the HP 200 and the Radia however the latter being the most amazing SS amp I have heard at least on the W/P 7s. We are more alike than you may think with my running cutting edge dynamic speaker design with "antiquated" amps and your running quite the opposite.

We all rather hear the real thing.

Khrys, check out the comment of the new eAR owner on the piano thread. You might try one. The eAR can easily power Watt Puppies.

Yeah... antiquated amps???Some food for thought! Somehow, I rather doubt Khrys would trade his Jadis's for "any" digital amps at this juncture. To be candid: I have never heard the Acoustic Reality. I have listened to a few high-end digital amps[no name dropping from me] in a few of the high end shops in my area. None of them grabbed me and said " take me home".I know one thing for certain, The Jadis's will make for an incredible musical experience, "magic" in spades when driving just about any decent modern speaker .Jadis amplification is world class by anybody's measure.That said: I don't believe for a second... that his Jadis's would, or could make that same kind of magic driving scintillas.I have heard the Scintillas on numerous[read too many] occasions with amplification that was just not up to the task.Can't say they ever came close to capturing me ,at least not until that one "magical" evening,when driven by FM Acoustics gear and accompanied by a top shelf phono stage.I would defy "anybody" that is into the recorded arts.....[don't care what you own] to walk away without thinking how great the recorded arts can actually be reproduced in our own rooms. After reading about Khrys's front end,there little doubt in my mind that he gets a lot more than his fair share of goosebumps .Tuning the room and optimizing the equipment in that given room is the "real" art! It really doesn't matter whether its solid state,digital, vacuum tubes[set,OTL,push pull or otherwise], horns, Electrostatics, ,dipoles,vinyl,tape,cd or what have you! I have heard, all of the above sound very very good,however.. I have also heard all of the above sound so horrible they would chase the tone deaf right out of the room! Funny though, how some of these antiquities can command so much more money than the [latest and greatest] current technology when given a year or two in the free market. Ever wonder why? Life is short and we are all destined to become an antique one day! Enjoy the times. Cheers! David

To my thought I realy always wondered why SET that can be built by high school student may cost more than powerfull SS beast that could drive near anything even including professional studio speakers and not realy do-able by hobbyist?
Full range digital amps are even more complicated than conventional solid state amplifiers. It's much less complicated to build digital bass amp than full range.