Well to be honest, I am not a big Michael Fermer fan.
(Which is ironic, since I am a big analog fan.) I just feel his reviews are catering to the subscribers of Stereophile. (More so than most of the others, well, except for Sam maybe.) I really took exception to his review of the Ayre P-5x phono preamp. He pointed our that Ayre specifically states that their phono preamps are best used via the balanced inputs. He then goes on to brag about which balanced phono cables he has in his home. (Then he states he did not bother to use them. This is the sign of a lazy reviewer in my opinion.) Anyway, enough about him!
Regarding your suggestion to audition some really nice tube amps, I have with a friend who audtioned 4 really nice tube mono-block amps with his system. (My friend's system is the system whose sound I am chasing. He has an ARC Ref. 1 preamp, a Aesthetix Rhea phono preamp, a VPI HRX turntable, with a Koetsu Urushi cartridge, and he uses Avalon Eidolon speakers. Great system.) Anyway, we tried out the Kora Cosmos (100wpc), the BAT VK150's, the Manley Neoclassic 250's and the VTL 450's. His main music listening selections are typically symphonic pieces and jazz. With the symphony music, he listens at realistic sound levels (ie. loud!), which really tests an amp. The Kora sounded great, but only with small Jazz pieces. It sounded compressed with larger symphonic pieces. The BAT sounded better with the symphonic pieces, but not as good with the Jazz. The Manley's sounded really good, but he managed to get it to clip on a rather large and loud symphonic piece. The VTL managed to do everything right.
(Howeer, one thing I noticed in listening to these four tube monoblock amps however, was that when we went from one amp to the next, increasing in power with each amp, in seemed that they lost some of that tube "magic" as the power increased.) That is one of the reasons I have not gone back to a tube amp. That and the cost and hassles of using tubes. I am not a tweaker, and don't really want to be caught up in the whole tube rolling and biasing ritual that tube amps require. (Yeah, I am Lazy. Perhaps I should be a Stereophile reviewer?!)
Anyway, I am currently using a Levinson No. 23 amp. It has 200 wpc, and sounds really good with the Studio's. At some point, I would like to go to monoblocks, but I am unsure which ones to get. I know that I need at least 200wpc, and would like to have more actually.
FYI: I had picked out the Pass Labs Aleph 1.2 monoblocks (based on research only mind you!), as being the closest a SS amp gets to tubes. However, due to them being a pure Class A amp, they run VERY HOT (it was told to me that they were like having 2 1200 space heaters in the room!), and they use a kilowatt an hour of power, even when they are just being warmed up. Another owner of them told me he could not use them during the summer, as they made the room sweltering. (I live in California, where we have high temperatures 5 months out of the year, so it would require owning two sets of amps That is too expensive for me. And no, I don't have air conditioning.)
Anyway, keep in touch as to how the Ayre and the ARC tube amps work out for you!
Good Luck!
