Best tube amp for electrostatic speakers


For over 35 years I've almost exclusively used either ribbons or electrostats with solid state amplification and have been generally happy with the sound. Over the last several years, though, my hearing has become somewhat degraded and more sensitive to certain frequencies. The frequencies which seem to cause the most discomfort occur in the 1400 to 1900Hz range and come across as "bright" to my hearing. After researching this matter and having been given some expert advice, I've decided to pursue the idea of replacing my present amplification equipment with tube based gear.

The purpose of this post, then, is to solicit advice regarding the best approach to making this decision based on the following information: the current basic equipment is Shanling Solid state CD player, Peachtree Audio Nova used as preamp, two DBX 1531 EQ's to help compensate for age related hearing loss, Peachtree 220 amp, Silversonic T114 cable and Martin Logan Ethos speakers.

The listening area is our living room measuring 15 by 22 feet with my listening position 16 feet from the plane of the 2 speakers which are positioned 11 feet apart measured center to center. Located between the 2 speakers is an entertainment center which is about 9 feet wide. My listening interests are varied from solo guitar and light jazz to occasional orchestral music. I don't generally listen at high volumes and am not particularly interested in strong bass except for the rare action movie background.

Unless not advisable for some reason, I would like to keep the Peachtree Nova as a preamp because of the significant latitude for source connection and what seems to have a decent internal DAC. If this option would substantially defeat the purpose of the intended modification I would work around it. I can no longer deal with sounds that are "bright" which I now find uncomfortable but detailed sound is very important.

So, the questions are: is the move to tubes the best option and, if so, what might be some reasonably priced amps that could accomplish the goal. This, of course, would take into consideration room size, etc. for determining power requirements. If there are other more practical and less expensive options to consider, I would appreciate that advice as well.
broadstone
George .... IMO, audio is about compromises. I just bought a DEQX PreMate to correct room effects and improve my speakers time coherence. The device is inserted between my linestage and amp. I am **NOT** happy about inserting any artifact into the signal path, least of all an active component like the PreMATE.

Having said that, the PreMATE adds more than it takes. Same point with Ralph's suggestion on using ZERO's. I think ML is crazy to design a STAT with .5 OHM impedance in the upper frequencies. Why not just short the amp??? If ZEROs can help, even if at some cost, the trade-off may be worth it.

Just sayin'.

Always best to get the right amp to start with, instead of putting a band-aid fix between it and the speakers.

The most questionable part of a tube amp that uses an output transformer, why put another one in between it and the speaker, if it wasn't the right one to start with.

For the OP's speakers for a tube amp to be a great match, it should have a real 2ohm transformer tap even 1ohm for these. For it not to start behaving like a tone control.

Cheers George
George, I agree with you in principle. But to my knowledge, there are not many tube amps with 2 ohm taps out there ... at least at the quality level of Ralph's Atmasphere or my ARC Ref 150.

I respectively repeat what I said above. Maybe the ZERO artifact is not a perfect fix, but the sonic benefits may well outweigh the sonic costs.
May I ask how much power you need to produce music above 10khz?

I have a couple of charts that show that the only instrument capable of producing fundamental frequencies above 5khz is a pipe organ. A piccolo's highest fundamental comes in at 4khz, piano 4.5khz, violin 3-4khz and guitar 1khz. It is my understanding that second, third, etc. harmonics are well down in decibels from the fundamentals.

I know that overtones are an important part of music, but as a practical matter, how much power do you need at 20khz?
Tomcy6

It's not the power, it's trying to maintain a flat frequency response between 20hz to 20khz, amps with weak current delivery will sag with these wild impedances that the OP's ML Ethos speakers have regardless of listening level.

And to try and fix this by putting basically another output transformer between the speaker and the tube amps own output transformer is just a band-aid fix.

It should be the right amp to handle those .8ohm impedances to start with.

Cheers George