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Amp for Sonus Faber Elipsa SE

Hello,

Any recommendation for an amplifier for Sonus Faber Elipsa SE?

Would you select tubes or solid state?

Thanks.
pkelly1504
joeinid's avatar
joeinid
658 posts
 
What do you prefer? Tube or solid state?

I rotate through amps on my Strads. Bryston 28BSST2's or Hegel H30 with a low output impedance tube preamp, like my CJ GAT, is superb on mine - superb control and soundstage. Strads need power to show their best but quality is better than quantity. I suspect the Elipsa SE are similar. If you want a sanely priced option, the Job Monos will be awesome. I had the Job 225 on my Strads and while, for the majority of my listening it was fine, I do feel the more powerful Job monos will be better.

Tube gear is buyer's choice. Believe it or not, one amp that gets a fair amount of use on my Strads is a Jolida Fusion 3502 with KT-150's (under $2K retail). A wonderful combo that will not break the bank. My taste runs more towards Conrad Johnson. Buy what you can afford. Audio Research and McIntosh are another superb combo depending on your taste. 

Do you have a budget you could tell us? We could point you in a better direction. What is your preamp? Or are you planning on amp and preamp at the same time?
joeinid's avatar
joeinid
658 posts
 
One more thing regarding solid state amps for the Elipsa SE, I heard them once, briefly, with a Krell sliding bias amp.I forget the model. It was really good and confirms my belief that amps like that (Odyssey, Bryston, Parasound, Pass, etc.) will be great with appropriate preamp.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

pkelly1504 Hi,

Really nice speakers you have there, but to get them to sing right, especially in the bass, for these Sonus Faber’s you need an amp that can almost double it’s wattage from 8ohm to 4ohm to 2ohm (eg: 100w 200w 400w) And that means amps that deliver hefty current. No tube/ Mosfet/Class D amp for these. You need big amp/s that have "bi-polar (bjt)" output stages this type of amp will do these speaker justice. As right through the bass and upper bass they are 2.5ohm, and at the low bass with 4ohms and -50degrees phase angle load (EPG), this can look like 1.5ohms to the amp.

Just a snippet from the Stereophile test results on these speakers.

"With an impedance magnitude that drops to 2.5 ohms throughout the upper bass (fig.1). There is also a punishing combination of 4 ohms magnitude and –50 ° electrical phase angle at 70Hz that will suck gobs of current from the amplifier."


http://www.stereophile.com/content/sonus-faber-cremona-elipsa-loudspeaker-measurements#bD5u0G5x4C8Jcr1R.97

joeinid has mentioned two amps I believe that have the goods to deliver big current. Big earlier Krell stereos or mono blocks Dan Agostino designed ones. And my favourite would be the Parasound JC1 mono blocks which you can user adjust the Class A bias with a switch, cool for hot days class A for cold days.

Stereophile in the review above used Mark Levinson No.33, Boulder 860 and the Parasound JC1’s these are all bi-polar (bjt) output amps.


Cheers George


mechans
3,048 posts
 
Unfortunately it seems like you'll need a tube amp for mids and treble, and a powerful, class A, SS amp for bass.  If I had to choose only one, I would get the biggest tube amp, that both sounds good and is affordable .  You might want to add that bass amp later or add a sub later.
pkelly1504 OP
62 posts
 
Hello & thanks for the responses.

I currently use Cary MB 500 mono blocks, a CJ ET3SE, Audio Research PH7 for a phono pre, a Project Extension 12 Turntable with a Sumiko Pearwood II Celebration cartridge to go along with The Elipsa SE's

The sound is great I am always looking to upgrade the sound. 
Would the best option be to buy tube mono blocks with the most power for the $$?

There are a pair of Carver Cherry 180's for sale for $4100. They are 180 watts per amp I believe.

It seems like I will gain in the mids & highs but lose on the lows by switching to tube amp.

Any input is appreciated.
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