Totally agree with Kenny's opinion/position on what happens as you go up in power/watts on the DI's, and the Ulf's, slight changes in bass presentation, nothing radical regarding over "aliveness" dynamics and clear differences in tonality/color depending if you are using tubes or solid state amps. Since both speakers are easy to drive conduits, I much prefer tubes in general and SET amps specifically because of what they have to offer in timbres/tonality, meaty 3D imaging, and spatial dimensions.
To be quite frank/honest, with no disrespect to anyone, I find that many so-called audiophiles and reviewers need to play their systems at very high volume levels because over the years they have really screwed up their ability to hear high frequencies at realistic volume levels because of the many years of setting in front of their system at unsafe/harmful dB levels. Ever time I have gone to shows my first request virtually in ever room is could you please turn down the volume. Because I'm spoiled reviewer, instead of copping an attitude they often oblige. When I'm invited to other listener's home to hear the music through their system I also almost always am requesting to turn down the volume.
In all systems because of many factors their is going to be a "sweet spot" were all the dynamics are present, along with realistic sound-staging/layering, and finally the size of the individual players. My major way of dialing in that sweet spot is the size of months of singers, and if a trumpet becomes four feet long its time to reduce the volume. As a system reaches reference level performance the "sweet spot" becomes more precise with each recording and sometimes has to be reset on different selections on the same recording because the sound engineer did some changes from cut to cut. So many times I have sat in front of systems that are playing at possible damaging dB levels with prefect clarity and dynamics but the snare drum sounds like it is the size of a bath tube! Please turn it down is my quick request to the owner of the system.
To be quite frank/honest, with no disrespect to anyone, I find that many so-called audiophiles and reviewers need to play their systems at very high volume levels because over the years they have really screwed up their ability to hear high frequencies at realistic volume levels because of the many years of setting in front of their system at unsafe/harmful dB levels. Ever time I have gone to shows my first request virtually in ever room is could you please turn down the volume. Because I'm spoiled reviewer, instead of copping an attitude they often oblige. When I'm invited to other listener's home to hear the music through their system I also almost always am requesting to turn down the volume.
In all systems because of many factors their is going to be a "sweet spot" were all the dynamics are present, along with realistic sound-staging/layering, and finally the size of the individual players. My major way of dialing in that sweet spot is the size of months of singers, and if a trumpet becomes four feet long its time to reduce the volume. As a system reaches reference level performance the "sweet spot" becomes more precise with each recording and sometimes has to be reset on different selections on the same recording because the sound engineer did some changes from cut to cut. So many times I have sat in front of systems that are playing at possible damaging dB levels with prefect clarity and dynamics but the snare drum sounds like it is the size of a bath tube! Please turn it down is my quick request to the owner of the system.