ICE Amps for classical music?

Mapman, I see you followed the testament of an Agoner from down under. Bezimienny succinctly described what I am hearing here. I love to crank up the sound when playing great recordings of solo piano. Tubes play a big part in my sound. There are four in my AN DAC.

"I listen to classical orchestral music at heavy volume. I detest reproduced music for always sounding more or less electronic and not acoustic "

So be careful with amplifiers based on switching power supplies. To the best of my knowledge - all except Jeff Rowlan 312 amp has peak voltage of about 50 volts.

One of the reason why you found delightful tube amplfiier sounding "thin" is that your speakers are extremely power hungry only 2nd to Shahinian Diapason in that respect. If you can get "ideal" amplifier and measure voltage at this amp outputs during orchestral creschenso - you will get not less then 150 - 200 volts peak voltage.

If you want class D amplifiers which can drive PROPERLY your speakers then you have to look Jeff Rowland - 312, Mark levinson - No53 and Spectron Musician III

If you like good tube sound then it must be Spectron amp. 1 - In monoblock mode it has peak voltage of 240 volts.
2 - One of the Spectron designer, Simon Thacher owned Diapason and voiced this amp specisfically for power hungry Shahinians.

Best Luck

Rafael

How can classical music sound natural at a heavy volume ?

Weseixas, ever been in a concert hall where 130 musicians are performing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. . . or simply a soloist digging into his instrument? . . . Quite an experience! . . . "heavy volume" indeed! G.

"How can classical music sound natural at a heavy volume ? "

The answer to this interesting question lies in the attendance of classical music concerts parrtucularly orchestral, choral and operatic ones. You will be surpised to find out that SPL at your ear varies from zero to about 115 dB (if you happenn to conduct the orchestra during this attendance as well).

This variation is not in the form of the since wave (as most of amplifier manufacturers try to convience us with many useless specs) but according to the capricious imagination of a composer and even more capricious interpretation of a conductor.