Best amp for Avalon


Just bought a pair of used Avalon Radian HC speakers and wondered if anyone can tell me which reasonably priced amp would best suit the old classics. I currently have a Tube Research ST-100 but I just wonder if they would be bettered served with something else?? Anyone out there have experience with this speaker. Any input would be appreciated.
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Tried all sorts of preamps during my Ascent days.
The only preamp I liked was an MFA Lumi which I eventually cloned myself.
Had a Ref 1 for the longest time when I had the Ascents as my main speakers. Open, quiet, overwhelming, and not musical.
You can't trust sand devices with small signals.
Might as well use a transformer based preamp if you dont want tube pre.
Biamping gets you the space and depth that the Avalons are known for, and using a tube amp for the highs tames the Titanium dome a bit so its less dry (Triode only, UL amps make it worse), but bi-amping is finicky and too much hassle.
You end up spending all your time adjusting the gain of the bass amps rather than listening to music.
Thats why i gave up on the Ascents. Are your TRLs S100 monos or stereo? If its stereo then you absolutely MUST biamp to deal with Radians.
Johnsonwu
The TRL I have is stereo and even with it's low power I can hear the potential of this speaker. I even thought of possibly getting another TRL ST 100 and using one on each side. I also considered an Audio Matiere Equilibre for the highs which is class A tube triode. Just trying to keep from running down "amp after amp" road if I can get some insight on what works. I once heard this speaker at CES and it was amazing but they were using the monster VTL Wotan 1200 WPC. a little over the top for me. Did you prefer the TRL or the Pass in your setup.
You are running the ST100 in stereo/triode mode right?
(Not sure what Paul's orig design was), the TRL S100 Mono I listened to was a DIY hand-held by Paul.

Anyway in terms of solid state driving full range I'd say nothing beats the TRL Samson. A close second would be 350.5.

For now I suggest you borrow a SS amp with high input impedance and huge current capability and stick with the ST100 for the highs.

Make sure your preamp has enough current to drive 2 power amps. Some preamps wimp out bad when presented with a less than 50k input impedance load (eg old Pass Aleph) when its already driving a tube power amp.