What tube amp for Harbeth 40.1

@bassdude

Makes perfect sense they would show their speakers with the mega watt amps in a public forum, BUT in a real world situation like your home where one MAY want something smooth, musical and warm, softer non fatiguing.... ALWAYS ALWAYS go for the sweet tubes of at least 50 watts at 8 ohms to meet what Alan has spec’ed himself as the minimum requirement. Now home theater solid state all the way!!!

Just so you know... that is Harbeth Support speaking... not me.

They are the ones that say they only use SS amps to design, voice, test and market their speakers, because they sound better to the general public when driven by the types of amps they design their speakers with.

It may be that some folks prefer a more relaxed, warm, slow sound to the clarity, resolution and PRAT, that SS amps produce with Harbeths - which is my preference... more like the... incredible sound of ATC’s, Ocean Way's or Magico’s, etc. - though, Harbeth’s do not rival those with any type amp.

It's all about personal preference.  I find I find Magico's to sound very nice, but ATC's to be loud and grating.  

Reading the original posters preferences for tubes and listening to jazz at moderate volumes, recommending high powered solid state amps is not in his best interest.

Just to report back on my testing between a Custom built, 8W 300B amp vs McIntosh 275 IV.

I listen to soft Jazz music 95% of the time.  For those 95% with examples below, I don’t feel the McIntosh 275 is better.  Just an impression, I feel the 275 has greater density.  But the 300B is a small bit smoother, more relax, sweeter, have a easier listening, and more life like.  Not saying the 275 is bad, it is very good.  It has the 3D, holographic tube sound, just the 300B is a bit sweeter.
So Nicehttps://youtu.be/LKaAS3ZxiKM
Cry Me a Riverhttps://youtu.be/cizgXSegrko

However, for the music below, there is a big difference.  It is obvious that the 300B cannot produce the big bass.  I can imagine some symphony also need more power on Harbeth.  But at the same time, I feel this is not the type of music for Harbeth.  The same song play on JBL 4344 monitor with an 8W 300B can produce much better and bigger sound than the 75W MC275 on the Harbeth. 

My Grandma and Penghu Bay
https://youtu.be/zyylBQ3yUOs

But I don’t regret buying the McIntosh a bit, I always want a McIntosh.  It definitely sounds good for more music on Harbeth.  But instead of using huge SS amp on Harbeth to get the dynamics, I will just simply buy another speaker.  Why forcing a square into a round hole? ; )

Having said that, I can also understand the response from Harbeth support.  They can’t just market their speaker to be good at only a limited type of music, they just can’t say that.