All Value System Under 5K

MgS:

I am very satisfied with the Stratos/Newform/Elad Combo. Very detailed. In fact, I have just called Klaus and put in an order to convert my single Stratos to a pair of Mono's.
My next purchase will probably be a used tube preamp. I am not doctrinaire regarding Solid State/Tubes and think it would be fun to have both a good SS and Tube preamp to play with depending on the recording and type of music.

Sibelius,

From your experience with the Stratos and the Newforms, do the Newforms need much power (>100w/ch) for optimal performance? I understand that their sensitivity is at 91db...so are you converting the Stratos to monoblocks because of power requirement, or?

I am thinking about trying out a tube integrated amp sometime in the future myself, just to see (I mean to "Hear") what all the tube fans are raving about.

Mgs:

The Newforms absolutely do not need any additional Power. The Odyssey has more than enough juice in Stereo Config. A whole different world compared to my current guzzling Maggies. The reason I am going to Mono's are (1) It's relatively cheap and (2) I have heard folks say that the Mono's greatly increase soundstage and presence. As I have never had Mono's before, I am also a bit curious to see what kind of difference I'll hear.

sibelius, i've spoken w/john meyer of newform, as i'm also considering his speakers, & he sez that removing the passive x-overs, & going to active x-overs & bi-amping, gives even better results. since the newforms don't need any more power, instead of getting the stratos mono amps, i'd suggest getting another stereo amp & running them in a wertically bi-amped configuration. this will give ewe the best of both worlds - ewe will still have a separate amp driving each speaker, & ewe will also be able to actively cross-over the newforms. even if ewe still use the newforms' passive x-over (which benefits from switching to hi-grade caps, btw), since ya don't need the extra power, the ability to have seperate amps for each channel *and* still being able to bi-amp the speakers, will give ewe better results than yust having a single monobloc per channel. and, yule still have more power than ya got now, when using two stereo amps. ask klaus - i spoke w/him about this, when considering buying a pair of his amps. (i ended up w/a pair of electrocompaniet aw60ftt's).

i also highly recommend going to a tubed preamp - it will take your rig to another level, imho... :>) at under $1k, ewe can find a used melos sha-gold reference or melos maestro (last iteration of the sha-gold). i know of no other preamp that will approach the sonics of this unit at anywhere near the price, tho leafs may dispute this! ;~)

regards, doug s.

Sedond:

What exactly is entailed technically in "removing the passive X-Over". Is this a fairly easy procedure? Can a novice handle it? Or is this for true techies only.

Sibelius