Amp/ preamp for electostatics and why

Rrog, do you mean you are surprised that I recommended one of our used amps rather than a new one? Its true that I avoid direct recommendation of our products, even when I think the recommendation is warranted. However ESLs together with OTLs have a history that goes back to the very first ESLs. In this case the desire was for a monoblock balanced tube amplifier to work on an ESL...

BTW a good number of older/smaller ARC amps benefit from the use of ZEROs as well. I've seen that with ARC and ESLs a number of times.

ESLs for the most part are driven better by tubes if their impedance is manageable for the tube amp. Its seems to me that a number of ESL manufacturers are trying to increase their market share by reducing the impedance of their speakers, to make them work better with transistors. The problem here is that transistors will sound bright on ESLs, due to the difference in impedance from the highs to the lows, which can result in as much as a 5x or 6x difference in power! So IMO ESL manufacturers that take this tack are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting off the technology (tubes) that works best with their speakers.

for more information see
http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers/paradigm_paper2.html

With my SL3s I'm running a Melos MA-333 Reference preamp along with Muse Model 300 monoblocks and enjoying it. I guess the Melos is a type of hybrid using four 6922 tubes. Works for me.

I tried to look for the M-60's but they do not come up when I type in Atamsphere. Also , when I look at most of these suggestions the prices would be way out of my range. If I could sell my amps for $800-900 I could maybe come up with another $1000 so price would have to be $2000 or under. I looked at the Quicksilver's and VTL's and the price is right but they don't have balanced connections. I know I once saw a pair of Sonic Frontiers tube mono's that ran over 100 watts and had balanced connections that ran $2500 but I haven't seen anything like that lately. I also don't want to use autoformer's, I am more of a proponent of the less in the signal path the better.

Ikonetic, I just search on 'atma', that's the easiest. FWIW the autoformers will have less in your path than a conventional output transformer-coupled amp will and there is a version that essentially replaces your speaker cables.

Welcome to the facanating world of Electrostatics!

I've had a pair of Accustat Spectra 22's for over 15 years now. Speakers with boxes, no boxes, baffles and horns all have come and and gone, a few stayed but the Accustats are still in my main system. Clearly I thoroughly enjoy them...but they are quite difficult to drive.

Amps that I have tried in the past included, Hafler DH200, Forte 3 used as monos. Was also romanced by a smattering of tube amps. Tried my Cary SL80 not enough juice I know! Had a pair of Quad II's, then Audio Research vt100 2's both seemed to work reasonably well but then there was the heat issue. I even once tried my little DEcware se for grins...

That being said even having the stats actively xovered at 80hz they still, if driven hard enough could pop the B+/- rail fuses on any of the amps mentioned. In some cases it was worse, that's how I ended up w/ the mono Forte configuration.... killed a pair of output devices on each side of the amp's!

About 2 years ago I ended up making major changes to the front end in support of adding vinyl as an additional source.

Out went the DIY DACT and Purist Audio passive pre's and in came a Modwright 36.5 along w Dan's SWP 9.0se phono pre. Still using the Forte units, the system really began to open up and sounded excellent. One problem that remained was when driven hard the amp/s would still blow a rail fuse and the fun was over...

My advice would be to listen to what many folks here have already said and find a really good Class D amp to follow a tube front end. This in my opinion is the ticket to audio nirvana.

I've first hand knowledge since adding a pair of Nuforce 9 SEv2's. They completely blew away my Forte amps! More detail, micro-detail, air and most importantly getting the sound stage / imaging correct. Given that most of the stats I've heard have a rather narrow sweet spot, you will be in for a real treat when you get things dialed in.

This combination of tubes and class D far exceeded anything I've experienced before. They drove the stats without a problem. Ok, every once and a while I'd overload one and it would go into protect mode, no fuses so just a reset of the circuit breaker and we're back to enjoying the music.

BTW, I've sent the Nuforce se2's to be upgraded to the se3's. Should have them back next week!!!

Your listing experience may vary so by all means try to audition as many amps as possible. Your local dealers and many internet direct vendors often times have great loaner programs.

Hope this helps,