Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?

The Gryphon Antileon (signature) as i have experienced and as reviewed by others may very well be the best product of Mr Rasmussen.
personally i do not like the Gryphon preamps very much.
but i know from Antileon owners that with the right speakers and powercords it is one of those amps to die for and inhibits the magic factor.
congrats on your choice, and pls report your findings :-)

that is: if you can find time to withdraw from the music..

pls repeat the mantra with us:
'It's all in the match'

I know were are talking about absolute "reference" level speakers and components here, but I'm surprised that with this many suggestions and responses so far, no one has recommended simply trying Paul Speltz Zero Autoformers to increase the impedance seen by Llyod's amplifiers.

They can be used to double, or even quadruple, the load seen by the amplifiers. As a result, amps that "run out of steam" may often handle previously impossible speakers without breaking a sweat. In many, many, systems, insertion of the Zeros not only remove the impedance issue, they are undetectable from a sonic standpoint. Give the FAQ a read.

Not saying they are guaranteed to work in every situation, or even this particular one, but for $450 in the naked version and $950 in the boxed, it is a far cheaper, and easier, experiment than all the fantastic amps being suggested. And even high-powered tube or solid state amps can still benefit from seeing a higher impedance.

I know this sounds like an ad, but I haze no connection to the company, professional, financial, or otherwise. Just passing on a little suggestion from the world of high-efficiency speakers/low-power SET amps and OTL amps.

Hi Darkmoebius. Thanks for your thoughts! I do not know this product and will look into it. I know that Musical Fidelity has their superchargers which sound like they do the same thing but "supercharging" amps. I do not know the technology but I did see at least two reviews which were both a little mixed on the success. (Basically, more grunt and volume...but a loss of the refinement from the original amp standalone). Your recommendation may well be better solution. Thanks again.

Tuboo,

What power cords are your Antileon owning friends using? I have read PAD Dominus Ferox which is my goal. I think Gryphon use Siltech? Someone else recommended Transparent Ref PCs...I do love their reference speaker and interconnects which run throughout my system. Thanks for your advice!! Lloyd

Hi Lloyd,

Zero's are nothing more than impedance matching transformers(actually autoformers - just a primary instead of the primary & secondary in transformers). They serve exactly the same function as output transformers in tube power amplifiers, which are used to match the impedance of the output stage to the speakers.

Paul Speltz seems like a great guy from his postings and is extremely proud and confidant of his product. It probably wouldn't be difficult to get a trial out of him. He also can wind custom Zeros for specific situations,if I remember correctly. Although, yours is a fairly basic one.

Of course, excess power and headroom are always a good thing with all speakers, especially medium to low efficiency ones. So, in the end, you may need 100-300+ watts to fully realize the potential of your Strads on dynamic passages. Even then, though, the Zeros would help.