Best Amp for Timbre, Depth and Spatial Resolution?

"09-15-13: Jburidan
SS amps and PP tube amps don't do timbre -- for that you want 300B SET, IME."

Doesn't the design have, at least, a little to do with timbre? I can tell the difference between a piano and a violin with both my SS and PP tube amps.

JB, note what speakers he is using. Not exactly the best candidate for use with a 300B SET. And note that his present amplifier is rated at 250 watts per channel into 8 ohms.

On the other hand the VAC Renaissance 70/70 MkIII that I use, which utilizes four 300B's per channel in a push-pull parallel configuration, providing 70 watts per channel, MIGHT be a suitable match that would provide the qualities the OP is looking for. (I use it with speakers that have far more benign impedance characteristics, and that are far more efficient). It would also be a good fit relative to the OPs budget, although retubing, if and when necessary, would obviously be quite expensive.

Also, ZD's recommendations are always well worth considering.

Regards,
-- Al

Jburidan,
I like that catagory of amplifiers also but you`ll only realize their exquisite potential with the proper speaker match.A push-pull 300b amp(in the power range needed) provides more flexibility in speaker selection while meeting the OP`s sonic criteria.

I owned the 802N and 800S for 8 years and 2 months of time. I stopped after hearing the 800D. Why? Because B&W missses the most important part for the absolute sound in the world in highend. There crossovers are poor in depth. I did test a few Ayre amps in depth. Pass and also Primare give both a much deeper and wider stage compared to Ayre. There is depth but not in the same league as Pass Labs. A B&W 802N never will be good in giving a 3 dimensional image caused by the poor crossovers. It is that simple!!

If you plan to keep the B&Ws, the Ayre is likely one of the better choices. This speaker does not play well with tubes due to the nature of its load (4 ohms in the bass, 8 ohms in the mids and highs). Four ohm loads should be avoided with tube amps even if they have a 4 ohm tap- almost any output transformer will loose a good octave of bandwidth off of the bottom end, simply by going for 8 to 4 ohms and the distortion is usually higher.

If you really want serve your amplifier investment dollar, the speaker should be either 8 or 16 ohms for best results! Even if you have a transistor amp, if sound **quality** is your goal, you will do better with a higher impedance speaker as the amp will make less distortion (read: smoother, more transparent). If sound pressure is your goal, there is a slight advantage to four ohm speakers, assuming the efficiency is otherwise the same.