Myself and several enthusiast friends did a shoot out of sorts between a number of amps on a pair of O/96s. The preamp used was a CAT SL-1, a modest Rega TT with the CAT phono stage and a decent digital system with a transport through a Thor Audio DAC.
The amps used were: old Mastersound 32B integrated, Audio Note 300B parallel SET, VAC Phi 200 and Atma-sphere M-60s. The clear winner by a significant margin were the Atma-spheres. When bypassing the Mastersound's internal preamp with the CAT this amp came in second followed by the VAC. Last place was the Audio Note. There was a 100% consensus.
When compared with the M-60s all other amps sounded restricted and confused. This was especially true of the SETs. When you got above low volumes the SETs had a very obvious tendency towards homogenization of the presentation. Only with the M-60s did the sound truly leave the surface of the speakers and these were the only amps to offer a truly balanced presentation.
I cant stress enough the need for power with these speakers and also how these speakers love to be driven by OTLs. Even though many may disagree, I dont think that 300B SET power is enough to let these speakers truly breathe.
The amps used were: old Mastersound 32B integrated, Audio Note 300B parallel SET, VAC Phi 200 and Atma-sphere M-60s. The clear winner by a significant margin were the Atma-spheres. When bypassing the Mastersound's internal preamp with the CAT this amp came in second followed by the VAC. Last place was the Audio Note. There was a 100% consensus.
When compared with the M-60s all other amps sounded restricted and confused. This was especially true of the SETs. When you got above low volumes the SETs had a very obvious tendency towards homogenization of the presentation. Only with the M-60s did the sound truly leave the surface of the speakers and these were the only amps to offer a truly balanced presentation.
I cant stress enough the need for power with these speakers and also how these speakers love to be driven by OTLs. Even though many may disagree, I dont think that 300B SET power is enough to let these speakers truly breathe.