Dartzeel or Mark Levinson 33H

I am using the Chord monoblocks. Thanks for the input everyone.

compare both to symphonic line, if your intention is to make a last stop.

I have a pair of Chimera's in my system right now. The Chimera's are rated at 4Ohm but drop down to 2.5Ohm. In my experience using different amplifiers of different power ratings I'd say the most difficult region to drive falls somewhere in the upper midrange.

The first amplifiers I used to drive the Chimera's were Shindo Corton Charlemagne 80 monoblock amps which are rated at 75 watts. These "almost" worked but I could hear significant distortion in upper midrange at high volumes - female vocals. The Bass seemed okay...and unstrained. The only problems seemed to occur at high(er) volumes. At the time I had a spare McIntosh Mc122 80 watt amp sitting unused so I bi-amped - Shindo on top and McIntosh on the bottom which provided about 155 watts to the Chimeras. I still got distortion in the upper mids. Bass seemed fine though. I switched the McIntosh on top and Shindo on bottom. Now the McIntosh was starting to distort and the orange McIntosh clip indicators came on. The Shindo powered the bass just fine - better than the McIntosh.

In both cases you could hear the amps straining in the upper mids at higher volume levels. So.. in this class of amplifier, the 80 to 160 watt range is not adequate for the Chimera… I’d lean toward at least 200 watts…Levinson 33H and Dartzeel are both under that but maybe they have higher current output or more dampening or something…. It would be interesting to try.

After the Shindo’s failed I purchased an interim solution, a Conrad Johnson Premier 350A which delivers 350 watts into 8 Ohms and I think it doubles into 4 Ohms. Anyhow.. the CJ drives the Chimera without any problem and since it's a high gain design, almost seems to have too much power.

One thing to note, with the CJ vs. Shindo is that the bass impact didn't really change all that much - I was very surprised. There was a very slight (if any) increase in overall bass speed and perhaps tightness with the CJ but nothing to write home about.

With the CJ there is never any sign of strain.

Given your choice of amps (Levinson 33H or DART), I suspect you’re searching for a bit more refinement or perhaps “personality”?? Because there are most likely no amps out there that will “synergize” better with your Chord DSP 8000 than Chord amps… which you already have. And (I am guessing) that since you use a AV processor as your “preamp” you’re system doubles for Home Theater duty too… So… slam is also very important to you? I would venture to guess that a single DART would not give you the slam you want in a HT application. Maybe a a pair would? That said, I’m not sure but I have a feeling the Levinson 33H would have more oomph.

Bwhite if you're not familiar with ML, but 33H is a Class A amp with 3,4kVA transformer per channel.

For 88 dB sensitivity speakers nominally rated at 4 ohms but dipping to 2.5 ohms, I would be careful about amplifier matching. The dart frequently is used with speakers rated several dB higher sensitivity and with higher, more benign impedances, some with powered woofers, and with such loads can perform well. Bass control, dynamics and weight are some things to listen for. In this price range there should be no compromises.