Looking for great tube integrated for Martin Logan Summit X speakers

smills, Would you give us a little more information about how the two amps compare on your Summit Xs?

tomcy6, I definitely will.  I've been snowed in, in Oregon for the past five days and unable to get home to hook up the Sanders ESL, but I'm heading there today and will spend the weekend with it.  It has lots of power, soit will be interesting to hear the difference.

maplegrovemusic, those KT150s are expensive!  Not sure I would put another $800 into the PL, but KT120s might be possible.  Any suggestions?  Or is it better to replace the two gain tubes fIrst?

This hobby is awesome!

"Not sure I would put another $800 into the PL, but KT120s might be possible. Any suggestions? Or is it better to replace the two gain tubes fIrst? "

smills59-

Experimenting with the 2 inner gain tubes can fine tune the overall characteristics of whatever power tubes are in the amp.
The EL34’s have great mids and highs. You might hear the KT88,120 as more solid in the bass, but less refined mids. The KT150’s are reported to have the best of the EL34 mids and KT88’s low end.

I had a feeling you would be pleased with the performance of the ML’s/PL. I have a PL HP, and thought ML’s sound great thru it.

As mentioned earlier, your own ears are the best judge.

Still wondering what your impressions are of the Sanders, compared to the PL. I’m guessing the Sanders may subjectively, catch your attention in some areas, but wont sound as organic as the PL. That of course, is just my subjective opinion. You may prefer the Sanders.

Waiting to hear an update on this.  There have been a few similar threads recently on tubs vs SS for Martin Logan.  I am in the SS camp but admit I have not tried tubes with the MLs.  Also smills59, what speaker cables are you using?

Still listening to them, but here is a quick update:

Sanders:
No doubt this amp has the power and also is beautiful to listen to.  I would say that is is much more detailed and refined, bringing out every sound with more clarity than the PL.  There are no negatives to it, except for the price to me.  I started out looking for an integrated amp to replace my Plinius, but the Sanders would require a preamp, which is not in my budget right now.  I could make it work, but is the Sanders $2500 better than the PL?  Or do I like it that much more than the PL?  That's the question I'm trying to answer right now.

Primaluna Dialogue HP Integrated:
I do love the PL.  Like tablejocky above, I don't hear an impedance issue like georgehifi warns about above - and I do appreciate the warning.  I read more about the PL, and they claim that the power is ample for the ML Summit X because they are relatively efficient, and that their "massively overbuilt output transformers produce more than enough juice for" my speakers.  To me, they seem to be correct.  I would say that the PL has more punch than Sanders, the sound is more intense, while the Sanders is more laid back.  I'm pretty sold on the PL except for one element that is bugging me:

Listening to some tracks, there seems to be a "crackle" or overly expressed crackle when the artist uses a "T" as in Vermont, or a "C" in some pieces.  The Sanders did this too, but it was not as pronounced as in the PL.  It's not a BIG issue, but now I'm focused on it.  This happens in triode or linear modes, and really only when listening to SACD, which I do a lot.  It's almost as if the Sanders presented this less loud and in more detail, and the PL because they are tubes, can't do that.  The PL now has about 125 hours of operation, so should be fairly broken in.I don't think this is the impedance thing showing its ugly head, but perhaps someone else can offer an opinion.

Anyone have an opinion about this?

THanks!