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@kota1 When I bought the Focal Stella’s and the Naim amp I was thinking that they made these units for each other the Naim Adam HP edition has many upgrades above the normal Adam Unity amp the Stella headphones were upgraded around the same time seemed to me like these should have been made synergistically Focal and Naim / Anthem and Paradigm etc. I’m not sure I can use my Naim for it’s streamer somewhere else and buy a tube headphone amp and save my headphones, they are to analytical. Do you see the connection between the headphones and the headphone amp being made by the same company and speakers being powered by amps that have been made for them?

@donavabdear , your headphones are not too analytical. The only thing they are is "too hyped". There is nothing particularly analytical about them. Frequency response has a lot of irregularities. Distortion is far from class leading. These are not the headphones you are looking for. I don't think any amplifier, tube or otherwise is going to fix them.

As a general statement, @donavabdear , no passive speaker and amplifier are made for each other. Some may claim that, but I think that would be a steaming pile of BS. If an amplifier is made for a particular speaker, then the corollary is that it is not made to work well with any other speaker. To use you term, mythology in audio.

There is the potential, and it would be more luck than anything, that the high output resistance of a tube amplifier may correct a frequency response error of a speaker, and there is a very good chance that the modified frequency response from the high resistance could delivery a pleasing result. There are many claims that the distortion of a tube amplifier is pleasant. Intersecting with your discussion point, distortion is most audible where the sensitivity of our hearing is rapidly increasing which would be moving from bass to mid-bass/upper bass. In corollary, if the sensitivity is rapidly decreasing, i.e. moving from upper mid-range to high frequencies, distortion is less audible. The antecedent to that is we are not very sensitive to distortion in the deep bass, so there is a bit more complexity. As our sensitivity w.r.t. frequency changes with volume, the audibility of distortion changes with volumes including at what frequencies it will be most audible.

Have to remember where I am going with this 😀   There is some experimental evidence that some distortion is more pleasing. The levels to achieve this seem to be large. Do tubes adequately provide this distortion? That is the claim. I do not know if it is true. Many tube preamps have low distortion and flat response. Maybe it is all a head fake?

@thespeakerdude It doesn’t seem like a very hard problem to create a spreadsheet about speaker drivers, amplifiers, crossovers, cables, etc. and come out with  a compatibility number. I understand the changing variables and functions of curves associated with speakers but it’s not that hard.

Take a very well respected speaker like Sonus Faber how can I buy an amp for it without gambling, sure I maybe able to listen to a Sonus Faber but very unlikely I’ll be able to test it with the amp I want and then how would I ever know if that amp is pushing the speaker to its ultimate potential. I think the emperor has no clothes in the entire audiophile world, very frustrating.

@donavabdear

Do you see the connection between the headphones and the headphone amp being made by the same company and speakers being powered by amps that have been made for them?

Yes, I own the Sony Signature line up headphone amp. IDK if they would work for doing mixes,, but I love what they do for casual/critical listening. The Signature amp is surprising me on so many levels, the headphone amp sounds great with both my balanced and unbalanced headphones, the DAC and the DSD remastering engine is like sonic alchemy, turning any type of track (lead) into DSD (gold). The Sony Signature Lineup amp/headphones/source/active speakers are purpose built and YES, that is the way to go.

https://www.sonypremiumhome.com/signature-series/

@thespeakerdude

As a general statement, @donavabdear , no passive speaker and amplifier are made for each other. Some may claim that, but I think that would be a steaming pile of BS.

Wrong again @thespeakerdude , the steaming BS is your shallow knowledge around speakers and amps. When a company makes both amps and speakers you DON’T think they are made to match?? What a load of "steaming BS".

Try checking out this Canadian company called Bryston:

https://bryston.com

or this America company called McInosh:

or this British company called Meridian: