I know it's not the Sabrina, but I drive my Wilson Alexia's with a pair of Conrad Johnson's big LP275M monoblocks fitted with ST120 tubes (8 per amp) and vintage Siemens ECC88's. The sound is as wide and dynamic as I could ever hope it to be. As others have said, Wilson's dip down below 2 ohms in low frequencies. That was too demanding for a pair of Primaluna EVO 400 mono's fitted with KT88's. They lacked the bass extension and overall dynamics I was looking for. I also have a pair of the big Bryston 28B SST mono's which are reported to put out 1.4KW into a 4 ohm load, But, with the success I'm having with the CJ's, I almost never use them now. I would love to hear how a pair of CJ ART300's would sound, but again I'm happy with what I have now.
Wilson Sabrina X ... oh my God! and Jadis... or?
Well, I’ve been a sucker for high efficiency and low powered tube amps, but the other day was visiting a good store and they had several Wilson speakers; the man offered me to sit and relax enjoying the Sabrina X, with a Jadis DA-50s and... BIG MISTAKE! Cannot stop thinking in such beautiful, full, complete, non fatiguing sound, I had 2 hours of pure enjoyment, seriously Didn’t want to leave room.
So here I am sending all my stuff and getting what I really think is the final game? At the end, I’ve never listened to such expensive and fantastic speakers. Fed by the aforementioned Jadis, a Prima Luna DAC and a Innuos Zenith, a shame I couldn’t play some records, but He said He was even better with vinyl reproduction.
I started with Isaac Hayes - Close to You from Black Moses... the voice was spread everywhere the room and just came from the amp, which was in the middle of the rack, just amazing, also played some flamenco, funk, classical, Jazz, Blues, Bossanova, Samba, everything was just spot on and sounded far beyond the speakers, without losing presence in front of me, hard to explain.
Now that I’m in, and pulled the trigger for an Ivory ones, need a proper amp for a few months till my wallet recover or sell the stuff I have.
I have a Goldmund Telos 7, which is beautiful Swiss made small amp, 175wpc Class AB with a fantastic DAC inside. But wondering if going Tube path is the right thing, cause I heard such airiness, full bodied, non fatiguing and relaxed sound with Jadis that was awesome!
Thought about these ones:
-Jadis DA-50S
-Mastersound Duetrenta
-Audio Research GSI75 (someone sells to me at good price)
-VAC Sigma iq170
-EAR Yoshino 834
-Lyric Ti200
-Octave V70 Class A
-Any of RAVEN tube amps?
Solid State: (Thinking from the "most analog sound"):
-Pass Labs INT-60
-Mark Levinson 5805
-Krell k-300i
-Boulder 866
-Coda (dunno much)
-ModWright (dunno much)
-Moon (dunno much)
-Kinki EX-M1PLUS
Not sure going Class D, although reading lately a lot about GanFet Class D amps like AGD, Java, Gato, Aavik...
I’m going integrated for now and for a few years, if it got a DAC or Phono inside, better, but can live without them inside.
What I don’t want to lose is that 3D, great body sound that valves used to give me, more into musical pure joy than High End nowadays.
Btw, speakers cables were Nordost and Crystal Cable, being the later one maybe more open and higher volume but maybe less controlled if I remember well.
Much appreciated, these Wilson left me in shock.
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@bdp24 While I agree with you that Jadis amps typically don’t fare well with low impedance loads ( almost no tube amps do), I would never recommend a MF over any of the Jadis models. I owned a MF amp for a few months, driving Acoustat speakers, it was not to my liking at all, YMMV. |
Yeah when I listened no more than 11 o clock, Jadis was superb! But I really like hybrid design, (having a Holborne Passion and Acoustic Plan Mantra), and they deliver plenty of great sound. Also having a DAC and good phono stage makes life easier (wife is not happy seeing more than 2-3 boxes). Does the Mimas gives nice “bloom and body” to mids, or is in the cold side? |
@daveyf: Did you mean to say "MF" (which to me means Musical Fidelity), or rather "MR" (for Music Reference)? If MR, do you remember which model? The RM-9 is pure tube, the RM-200 a hybrid (solid state input stage, tube output). The RM-9 is a classic unbalanced tube amp, the RM-200 balanced, with only XLR input jacks. Both are push-pull designs, though Roger also made single ended tube amps, which at the end of his life he was quite enthusiastic about. He also offered his own version of an OTL amp. Modjeski thought highly of the Acoustat ESL panels themselves (I recently learned that Roger Sanders was involved in their design), but not their transformers. He actually deigned a replacement for them, and iirc even a tube version to replace the stock ss one. Roger’s death was a great loss to hi-fi, but his talks at the annual Burning Amp Festival in San Francisco are available for viewing on YouTube.
Here’s his 2015 talk, misspelled name and all:
The first viewer comment below the video is well worth reading.
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