2. amps-preamps
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Flea SET amp for Shindo Aurieges

I'm coming over from SS land and new to tubes so hope you guys can help me. I'm considering getting a flea powered SET amp to go with my Shindo Aurieges preamp. The Shindo SET are out of my reach at the moment so I'm looking for alternatives that will mate will with the Shindo's high output impedance (5,000 Ohms) and also do it justice. Is there anything out there for about $2K used that would fit the bill? I listen to a wide variety of music - from jazz to electronic and large orchestral pieces so I'm looking for something with a velvet hammer with good control over the bass if thats possible. I've been considering the Audio Note Quests, is this a good match and are there any other suggestions?
mikeyc8
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
start with speakers you love and work backwards
mikeyc8 OP
174 posts
 
I currently own and love my Gershman Avant Gardes. They have nice smooth mids and good bass slam. The problem is that they are 87 dB so the flea powered amps won't drive them properly. So if I go the SET route I'll probably have to sell them and I'm considering HE models such as Audio Note, Omega, Zu, etc. At the moment I have a vintage Marantz 8 with 35wpc that is adequate to drive the Gershmans, but I find its not as open or transparent as an 8 wpc AN Conqueror amp that I heard recently, hence my possible conversion to the SET dark side.
restock
831 posts
 
Michael, Fi amps (e.g. Fi Super X 2A3, Fi 45 Fi WE421) have a very high input impedance that matches well with the 10K input impedance and high gain of the Fi preamps (one of the reasons why I was considering Shindo :)

Some of the other ones that get good reviews (some of these I heard already): Bottlehead, Korneff, Welborne, Wright, Yamamoto, Verdier - I am sure we can get a few of these together for a listening session in Toronto sometime in the near future ;)

As others mentioned, a lot will depend on your choice of speakers as well.
mikeyc8 OP
174 posts
 
Hi Rene, yes my research also turned up a couple that you named Yamamoto, Fi and Verdier. The last two should be relatively easy to audition :) Look forward to hearing them soon.

I must confess, I'm a bit of a bass freak, will these flea amps and single driver HE speakers be able to keep me happy?
darkmoebius
900 posts
 
Mikey,

If you are a bass freak AND want to go SET, then be prepared to have very LARGE speakers and/or spend a lot of money unless your room is fairly small. Superior bass in single-driver speakers is even more difficult because a single driver has to reproduce (almost) the entire frequency spectrum. Not an easy task.

I have 5 foot tall(95dB) Cain & Cain IM-Ben double-horn speakers which have a Fostex 168 Sigma driver and a Fostex T-900A supertweeter above 12kHz. These speakers are amazing in many regards, but real, accurate and deep bass simply is not possible. I use a pair of C&C Bailey subwoofers for that.

I also have 97dB Hammer Dynamics Super-12 speakers which feature a 12" coaxial driver and a supertweeter above 10kHz. This kit speaker puts out pretty amazing bass for HE speaker, let alone a single driver. There is something about really large single drivers that is even more unique than their smaller brethren. And they rock like no other. This is a great balance between cost($650 kit), cabinet size, and performance.

I would think that some of the new large Hemp Acoustics CO15V 15" coax driver would be even better.
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