Sonus Faber Guarneri with SET amplifier -possible?
i power the guarneri memento's either with a mf kw500 or a vtl 5,5 preamp and quicksilver v4 combination. the quicksilvers deliver 120 watts only but are by far superior to the kw,s. the quicksilvers are elevated to a higher performance level with the ps audio ac3 power cords. soundstage depth and realism are remarkable using the latter combination. the guarneri's sound more powerful and realistic with the quicksilver combination than with the kw500,s. wr |
I usedSF gauniere with mccomarcak dna 1 dlx after with AR VT100, so I bougjt ne gamut d200mk3 - very fast , the strigs the best I listened til now, than I used for some time audiopax 30 watts SET mono. I think this spekears need a lot of watts, better 200 watts or more , you can see the woofer moving like one wave from the speaker. I do not belive you can get a goosg sound from SF guaniere wit a SET, maybe a fantastic medium , but you will lost the bass, and microdinamics, the sensivity is 87,5Db, but I think the impedance curve is not very friendly with SET and few watts. I can not live with SS amplifier, but if I went back to guarniere I would have to chosse a excelent SS power ( classe A) and a fantastic tube preamplifier. One thing I know from SF guarniere, the most beatiful speaker I know , and the best speaker for strings. |
Milimetr, I am currently using SF GH's; to drive them I am using a Jeff Rowland model 8 with choke and a CAT sig pre-amp. This combo works well because the G's are fairly inefficent and with tube pre-amp and a large ss amp they come alive. The G's seem to need at least 50+ watts in front of them. I have heard the G's with BAT amps at 50 watts/channel and they were just about able to drive the speakers although I could hear some strain. With 10W SET's, I suspect you will be overloading the amps most of the time. My room is pretty small and I can still get the amp pushed a little and we are talking 250 watts per channel! So, I suspect, that an ideal match in tubes would be in the order of 75 watts/channel minimum... something like the Tenor 75's or any of the bigger Jadis amps. Not as sweet as the SET Jadis 300's, but a much better match for the G's. |
I listen to the Guarneri's with a Unison Research Preludio 14 watt tube and they sound beautiful with individual piano , violin or guitar music. I then switch over to a Devialet 1000 watt SS for everything else. The 1000pro has complete control of the Guarneri,s whereby the preludio can just give you that sublime midrange. I guess we can't have everything. |
Sonus Faber Guarneri with SET amplifier -possible?Not if you want the best bass possible around 100hz. Because the SF’s have a 4ohm load combined with a -50 degree negative phase angle around that frequency, which the amp could see being as low as 2-3ohms. And with a SET is could sound a bit thin in this area. http://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/807SFGFIG1.jpg Cheers George |
