Dude TRL vs Red Wine Isabella vs Dodd

Saki70: TRL moving to Italy? No thank you. Your source was wrong.

While the Tannoy's are efficient enough at 96db with 8 ohms nominal impedance, even the published specs recommend 50 - 275 watts. If you have a smallish room and won't be driving them at loud volume maybe the RWA 30.2 would be enough, but I would think the 70.2 monoblocks would be much better.

On the other hand the Samson's would be no problem and at the price you could purchase them for I wouldn't get hung up on the same equipment paradigm. I owned the stereo version of the Samson's (at the time called D-225) and ran them with a TRL preamp, as well as preamps from Cary, Joule Electra, JRDG, and even a custom passive TVC. It all sounded great in my system. Speakers were Spendor 1/2e at the time.

Don't get hung up on battery power either. In my experience a well designed linear power supply is better than a battery power supply. TRL develops some of the best and beefiest high current power supplies I have ever seen. The headroom in the Samson's will do wonders for macro and micro dynamics and transient attacks. However, the best test is at low listening levels where the amp will deliver extremely linear and clear sound that you won't believe until you hear it.

Clio09.Thank you for your comments.Are you saying I can use M225=Samson with any preamp and should work fine?Can you compare sound of Samson with other amps?

I wouldn't go so far as to say you could use the Samson's with any preamp, but from my experience I had no issues using different preamps and I don't see why a Dodd Audio or Red Wine Isabella wouldn't work. In fact, if your digital source has enough output, try a passive preamp. Some of the best sound I got was using the D-225 with a passive TVC (the Samson's are highly sensitive at about .8V and have higher gain than most amps). Then again I'm probably part of a very small minority that is a big fan of passive preamps. TRL can help you with a passive preamp as well to match the Samson's.

As for comparison to other amps. Well I think the biggest difference is the Samson's have the ability to play with "balls" or finesse based on your listening tastes. I've cranked up mine with no distortion issues and listened at the lowest levels late night and not missed a note. Rock, complex classical recordings, solo cello, chamber music, whatever you through at it the Samson's will handle it. My VAC amps I use now can crank it out, but at low level I do sense minor loss of dynamics and bass linearity. My Cary amp used to peter out too easily and was very colored. TRL will be very transparent. It will power your speakers with ease and run cool and efficiently in the process.

Clio09
I have heard D400 from Audio Research and it was adding bass and that is why I did not like it,then I heard some single ended triode tube amp and that was also too heavy on bass.Don't take me wrong,I like lots of bass but my Tannoys Canterbury have already lots of it so I need amplification with more details and clarity (more definition).At the same time I don't like too analytical presentation because then it is loosing a musicality.Also I like a lot of complex music like progressive rock,classic music and 70's rock and so I need my future amp to have PRAT(Pace rythm and timing)and I that is very important for me.Here I don't see people to talk about this feature in their amps.And many fine amps does not have this PRAT!Do you think Samson has that?
Sorry for my english,I am trying the best to explain what I am concerned about.