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Harbeths and Tube Amps

I have C7s and know they require a good amount of current. As someone who's been a tube amp owner for 20 yrs, I'd like something that will properly get hold of and drive Harbeths. Anyone have suggestions that they use or have had experience with? My Air Tight 300B (at 10wts) seemed to 'give up the ghost' with the C7s. By the way, my room is small, 11 x 13.5 x 8, so I don't need crushing volume, just good control and drive. I've bought a Plinius SA50III which actually sounds superb, surprisingly enough to me but maybe I just haven't checked out good S/S amps in too long a time. I think I just miss the 'cache' of tubes and trannies.
tomryan
tomryan OP
796 posts
 
Nzera,

I've been told that the Radial driver, as used in the C7, requires quite a bit of current to work properly. This was told to me by someone at the Harbeth distributor but I can't remember who. How did the Granite Audion in particular work? I've been interested in them since deciding a few months ago to try something other than the SETs I've using for the last 7 1/2 years. I wonder if a 40-50 SET would also work?
jay_douglas_2879b79
239 posts
 
stick with ss for the harbeths. all bbc monitors and offshoots are perfectly matched for ss. just ask someone at the bbc
nzera
68 posts
 
Tomryan- The Harbeth's never really struck me as all that hard to drive with tubes (my current Usher CP 6371s seem like a tougher load). Other than Plinius 9200 and a Jungson JA88C, never tried any other solid state- maybe something like Bryston would give a different perspective.

The Granite Audio monos are excellent- I have a pair of the 861s upgraded to what they are now calling the 864 model. Nice build quality. They have a well-balanced sound- neutral in a good way. Fast, very detailed, good bass, and touch of midrange warmth, but still tansparent. They work well driven direct by a source, but I recently added a Dehavilland Ultra preamp, which has made a definite positive improvement.
jalanc42069
131 posts
 
I was considering the 7ESs and heard that the Audiomat Arpege(tube, push pull) is a good match, 50 w/ch i think, and also the Naim NAC 112/ NAP150 is even a better match(ss, 50w/ch also
c123666
871 posts
 
An excellent solid state amp that goes reasonably and is very, very good is a Spectral DMA50 and DMA80. Wonderful solid state amps with great bass and a wonderful midrange and highs.
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