Powerful Tube Amp for SF Strads?


I am looking for recommendations for a powerful tube amp for my Strads. A powerful tube amp which truly excels at palpability, musicality but also has very good bass control (though bass control is not as 'mission critical' to me as palpability).

My current amp (see below) sounds great to my ears!...but runs out of steam much too soon.

My system today:

Zanden 5000S DAC
CJ Act 2
CJ MV60 (EL 34 tube)
SF Strads (4ohms, 92db sensitivity though impedence does dip to 2.5ohms)
Velodyne DD-18 (run in parallel)
Transparent Ref/Ref XL cabling throughout
Purist Audio Dominus PC

In addition to recommendations, any thoughts are welcome on Wavac, Audio Note, Zanden, VTL, CJ LP275...or monoblocking MV60 (EL34)? Thanks!

Lloydelee21
lloydelee21
Thanks, Tuboo! I learn every time i read your posts. As for dominus ferox, if you have specific recommendations on other PCs i should consider, please let me know. I am thinking transparent reference, possibly Gryphon's own VIP or Siltech. Your thoughts/recommendations are most welcome!
personally i see no reason to go OTL first and put in Speltz Autoformers later because of bad speaker impedance. why not choose 'good' speakers first?
Agreed, but sometimes a person is already heavily invested in their speakers(emotionally or financially) and the Zeros are a low cost(& effort) way to seem if a particular amp will work to their satisfaction.

In Lloyd's case, his system wasn't designed around removing output transformers(OTL), so the philosophical transgression of adding an autoformer isn't as big a factor.
yes i can imagine the addicton or a love for certain speaker i got the same for my Verity. and the AtmaSphere OTL is known to me to say the least..
it may be worth trying out the Autoformers which will be great for what they do.
i have learnt alot from mixing and matching through the years and made less than happy choices and also found very lucky combinations as per try.
the interesting thing is that combinations which may form a dream team on paper still don't work out in the real world.
maybe that is just the reason there is some many gear for sale again. and nothing wrong with that.

hard to tell which PC may be best for the Gryphon and your situation. it's part of the journey to buy and resell to finally settle on a particular brand and type.
try out the Valhalla PC too.

fwiw: just today my local CD store put out signs at the street with 50% discount on it.
just happened to be at the other side of the street doing a haircut. i walked in and bought 80 CD's for halve price.
reason for closedown of the shop was a downhill on sales due to internet sales and the www downloads.
it felt doublesided, happy to score so much great titles for a 50% discount, but at the same time felt sorry for the shop owner.
as the song goes: 'The times, They are a changing'
So at long last...the Gryphon has landed! She's been running for about 30 min...so far from warmed up. Initial reaction? 1. More detail than my CJ MV60. I now even more fully appreciate how good the CJ was (already left it with London store to sell). The level of detail is greater which I love, but I it is pretty stratosphere levels which aren't necessary to really enjoy your system. CJ had good dimensionality and spaciousness. Gryphon again better but CJ stood up well. 2. Surprising amount of the purity of tone I enjoy about tubes. 3. Now here's the part where the Gryphon struts its stuff...RIDICULOUSLY fun amounts of unadulterated power and control!!!! Wooo hooo! My neighbor 2 floors below came up to say he could "hear and feel" the track in his apartment...oops! Sorry...got a little carried away playing Deep House music! 4. As it nears 45 min from cold start (ie no power at all...not even standby) it continues to gain purity of tone...my Zanden DAC takes almost 4 hours to reach peak so I am used to this. 5. I love this thing. Wow. Back with more later. Gotta change the track and continue testing a bit...
That's awesome, Lloyd. I bet those Strads really shine with the extra reserve power on tap.

Better tell your neighbor to get used to it, because from here out "The House's gonna be rockin"