The Best Tube Amplifiers vs Spectron ?

Compared against the 'best' tube amps? There are a lot of tube amps out there (more manufacturers in the US now than in 1958). Did you listen to all of them :) ??

Hi Rafael,

My audition was with the MKIII with the V-cap option. The BATs also have all the upgrades. I also preferred Ralph's Atma-Sphere MA-2's over the Spectrons. Again I can't describe it other than to say, to me the BAT's and the Atma-Spheres sound more like real music then the Spectrons. More organic maybe while the Spectron while sweet enough are more sterile sounding. Again personal preferences. Thanks.

It's quite interesting that several posters have found a SS (class D no less) that seems to stand up with some of the top designs. I have heard the Sigfreids on several occasions and found them to be excellent.

But looking over StereoMojo's review, James Darby provides some insight into why one may want to choose this amp, and why in some circumstances, another may be a better choice.

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FACT A: If you have speakers that are legitimately very efficient with high sensitivity (those specs are dodgy as well), you do not need these amps. Or probably even one of them. Examples are single-horn types or full-range models like those by Coincident which have good sensitivity and benign, amp friendly impendence curves.

FACT B: If you have 100 or 200 wpc amp (specs are tricky here, too!) driving rather inefficient speakers with impendence curves that range all over the place and you listen at moderately loud to loud levels to music other than harpsichord solos in a largish room, you are probably listening to large amount of distortion and/or clipping.
The size of the speaker does not matter. Some small speakers (like Brit monitors) are notoriously hard to drive.

I believe emailist is right on the money. I have a Spectron amp with Gallo 3.1 speakers. Beautiful match. Would I use the Spectron amp with, for example, Wilson speakers...not sure. From what I have read BAT tube amps may be the way to go.

I see many people with planar speakers who love the Spectrons. Must be a good match. Teajay, you might want to check them out in your system.

One other note to Spectron owners. Check out the levitation isolation devices that Simon sells.

" I can see what musicians would like about the Spectrons as they are very accurate. To each his own. Enjoy!"

Thank you Bruce. You are probably right why musicians, recording engineers, speakers designers (at least ones listed on Spectron web site like Gallo and von Schweikert) and other professionals like Spectrons.

I would add only avid concert goers like myself because as Wayne Donnelly so correctly (for my ears) wrote:

"The Musician III Mk II monoblocks have a crystalline purity in the reproduction of every voice and instrument that sounds more to me like the essence of live, unamplified music -- which I attend, on average, more than once a week year-round -- than any other amplifiers -- at any cost, based on any technology-- that I have ever heard."

And in no way I was comparing Spectrons to class A ss amplifiers. I am a (mostly) "toob" man and I always believed that the best tube amp ONLY can approximate the magic and sweetness of real unamplified acoustic music

"......To each his own. Enjoy!" Yes!

Mike