Amp recommendations for Revel Salon2

I've heard them with both McIntosh SACD/tube pre/MC501's and Ayre's top of the line.

The McIntosh was warm and musical, but more of a 20th-row seat perspective, where I like a bit more forward sound. I was also a little surprised how easy it was to peg the meters on the MC501's - these speakers do like some power. Still this was in a rather big very damped room, so real-world this might be a very nice combination.

The Ayre's didn't impress me too much. The combination had a more forward perspective - just the way I like it really, but the system didn't push my buttons at all. To me, it seemed to lack warmth and transparency, despite reviews listing these as major strengths. It goes to show we all hear differently I guess.

I heard the same components driving the Wilson Sasha W/P on another occasion and liked them even less with the Wilsons(but for the same reasons). YMMV of course.

I would have been tempted to try the JC1's next, and perhaps give a longer listen to the McIntoshes.

The Salon2's are terrific speakers - you should be able to get amazing sound out of them.

Irv -

Thanks for your thoughts.

I would definitely consider ML but I've heard and read of concerns with reliability and support recently - including amps. Glad your amp(s) has/have been reliable. Which model(s) do you have?

I've heard of very positive comments on the AR DSI 450. A former owner of Salon2s changed his Ayre mono blocks to this particular amp and was extremely impressed with the outcome. Very much supports Auxetophone's comment on the Ayre with the Salon's.

Thanks!
Mike

Auxetophone -

Thanks for your comments. I did hear the Salon's with the Ayre at my dealer. The entire setup was Ayre - CD/Pre/Amp. The Salon's sounded better than they do with my Anthem - more detail and more bottom. However, they did not have enough "juice" to drive them to reasonable loud levels (not suggesting ear shattering).

Thanks,
Mike

Irvrobinson,
You should really listen to an Autoformer coupled McIntosh before you adopt the belief that Autoformers are a waste of weight and money.

I run a pair of ML 334s, in vertical bi-amp configuration.

I have heard more than one solid state McIntosh amp, and they both sounded fine. I'm not a good one for hearing differences between high-end amps, perhaps because I don't believe there is much in the way of audible differences. My bias against the autoformers is only that I believe investing in robust power supply and output stages results in a better amp for many modern multi-driver, passive crossover speakers with low impedance dips than investing in a big hulking matching transformer. If you like McIntoshs, cool.