Amps for Avantgarde


I recently installed a new set of Avantgarde Mezzo speakers. They have two horns for medium and high frequencies and a horn based woofer cabinet with its own 500 Watt amplification.
The speakers look great ( I have them in cherry with burgundy red horns), my wife likes them and the sound is GLORIOUS !
You can see my setup in Avantgarde-acoustic.de web page/gallery
Bass it has all you can take, the limit is your ears an the furniture trying to move around by itself. Even at low levels you get plenty of bass.

From my former setup with Aerial 8B speakers i had a C-46, two MC-501 and a MCD-205, all McIntosh.
With the Avantgardes the MC-501 were showing a watt usage of hardly over 0.5 Watts, at normal listening levels and no more than 5 Watts when really turniung the volume up to hurting levels. The sensitivity of the Mezzo is 107dB.
I thought that maybe I should try the real fine stuff, valves single ended, which have an output power handicap, but in this case with theses speakers not. 5 Watts is probably enough.
A friend of mine who is also audio dealer loaned me a set of Klimo Belataine Mono Valve amps, 5 Watts Class A, single ended, 300B, with automatic bias controll and choice of feedback or no feedback. The Klimos have a separate power supply for each mono amp and those are also valve operated.
He also gave me a Klimo Merlin valve preamp to try.
Ther hearing test produced the following results.
The Merlin with the Beltaines compared to the C-46 with the MC501's sounded more real, more detaild, more lifelike and maybe with a tighter bass. No distortion or noise was heard at any level.
But I did try another combination, and that was hooking up the C-46 to the Klimos
And I got an even better, more detailed and lifelike sound than with the Merlin Valve preamp.

I have never been really interested in valve amplifiers and considered well designed solid state the better.
Well, the Klimo Beltaine power amps are a joy, but the McIntosh C-46 preamp sounds better than the Klimo Merlin, which has had some good reviews, allthough it is not considered a preamp good for rock. Maybe that gives a hint.

Now here is my question, should I stick with the C-46 or can I get something much better, solid state or tube ?
stefanfad8
This is just a whim but I have heard some of the better Classe amps sounding very clean detailed and transparent on elecrostatic speakers like Martin Logan and it seems to me that they might also synergize well with high sensitivity horns like the Avantgardes. Just a thought, I have nothing concrete really to back it up with.
Hi mapman,
I have spent some time with the big Classe 400 watt monos on B&Ws. They sound very good too. For me (others may feel different) they are similar to a lot of other good amps. Maybe a cross between a Pass labs and a Chord amp.

Has anyone tried any of the first watt amps on Avantgarde?

There is a Luxman amp called the B1000f that I think may fit the bill in that it may give the strengths of both SS and Tube. It stays in class A for the 1st 30 watts.

The wonderful thing about Avantgarde speakers is that you can drive them with anything. They show an amplifiers character in stark relief.

For me the amps that changed my view of what an amp can do for a system over the years makes a very short list. Audio research, Lamm, Halcro. If price is factored in then Bel canto makes an audiophile bargin, and the 75% you save could buy a lot of music or better source!

Thats not to say there are not many others, but they seemed the 1st to plough new audiophile ground. Nothing at the time or maybe since has sounded the same to me.

If sticking to tube amps, trying the Atamasphere amps on Avantgardes in depths of winter may work well...
Chad, I have interest in the Audio Research amps. Which ones have you tried? I am only interested in SS amps for my system, but I like that ARC does SS with a strong foundation in tube technology and I have been most impressed with the ARC sp16 in my system.
Hi Mapan,

I had Cl150 monos, VT150 monos,ref 300 monos and many preamps. The 210t is very nice. I have never tried the SS amps though. The VT150s where beautiful. They made music an event. Even if they where not the last word in complete transparency. If I had different speakers I would still keep a pair for the love of music! I tried it on some unos, but it was a little noisy. A little scary on power up too due to a pop when engaged. But when there was signal it was almost livable with.
I no longer have my UNOs, but the best sound I got out of them came with an Acoustic Sound Sitar Integrated amp. I said earlier in this thread that the Jadis DA50S was a good option (and I still keep that statement valid) but the Sitar was clearly a better option in my room.