Avalon

Vicweast - I hear you, and the Ayon is still a great choice; I am sure you will enjoy the combo.  Let us know how it works out; just watch out for your back when you pick it up - its pretty dang heavy.

Well, yesterday the FedEx truck came. The Ayon Triton III box weighed 133 pounds. I had help from the FedEx guy in getting the box into the front hall but from there...

It has been cold here and once I managed to lift the amp out of the box (when lifting it, its an ungainly monster that is back-side heavy) I let the electronics acclimate to the house for several hours. I also made a high-end zip-wire set of speaker cables and hooked it up to a set of nice but sacrificial Energy speakers. (I'm going to try to keep my Avalons from blowing up with new gear.) After the right amount of anticipation: The switch was flipped! 

I am quite happy with the initial results, so much that it only took another two hours to replace the Rogue amp with the Ayon!

OK, so now things sound great ...mids and highs are well articulated and in triode mode sound very well defined and airy. Bass is big, very big on big bass tracks.
I am running AntiCables Level 3 ref from the amp to the speakers. These cables are solid copper (shotgun approach w/2 12 AWG conductors for each + and - per side).
The Rogue amp did not produce this amount of bass, but with the exact same setup, the Ayon Triton III produces lots of bass. I have a limited ability to pull the speakers forward from the back wall (to reduce the bass) and when I do it alleviates the amount. ...But cables may help also.
What do you think about an approach using silver per the tempo electric/vinyl tourist "Big Twist" recipe? For my cable length that would mean two 12 AWG silver conductors per side, each in an oversized Teflon jacket, terminated bare on both ends. The price is great for this versus a Cardas circus or similar ilk "maintain the Mercedes for 3 years" cost. 

Vic,

Congratulations on the Triton.  I replaced my Rogue 99Magnum preamp/M180 mono block system with a Triton 1 a few years ago and have been very happy.

Regarding your speakers, are they on isolation spikes?  If not, that would help at least to tighten up the bass.  I am not familiar with your speaker cables but I have found Kimber 12TC to be a good cable that has good extension but is not too warm.

Congratulations again,

John

@reynolds853 Hi there. The spikes is a good point, as I deliberately have avoided them: I will try that now, thanks.
The Triton III integrated actually sounds far better than my post indicated. I think that my prior experience was not compatible with the tubes in question. In reading up on KT88s in triode mode, I think I am hearing something I was not ready for when I responded. I now like the bass!

I will continue to survey triode & pentode modes via a range of familiar music. This is a pretty major change for my listening experience. (Its not a hobby, eh ... more like an adventure.)