Best tube mono blocks under $15,000?

I auditioned the Manley Snappers with Jumbo Shrimp preamp in my system driving Montana EPS2 speakers. Although I have a few amps, my primaries in this system are MC501 and C2300. Listening mostly to vinyl through a very fine analog front end, I and an audiophile pal with excellent ears preferred the MC501 and C2300 combo. The Manleys are very nice, and I could live with them easily. But the overall listening experience, including bass foundation, midrange presence and detail, and musical coherence gave the nod to the Macs. We also found the Manleys to harden slightly under pressure in the upper mids with these speakers, which can be a little forward there anyway. I'll add as a caveat that the amps may not have been entirely broken in, though I'm not sure how much difference that would have made in my decision. I wanted to prefer them--the switch would have netted me a substantial pile of cash (this was before the big price increase)--but it just wasn't so for me. I should add that I own a Steelhead and a Stingray II, so I'm a Manley fan. But I'm not sure you'd find the Snappers to be a sonic upgrade from your current combo. YMMV.

Hi wrm57,
I used snappers with a shimp and was also unhappy with the results,flat,no detail,etc.
Then I tried them with a ARC LS26.
an amazing difference.I think the shimp was your weak link.

Hi Efner,

That could well be. I tried them with the C2300, too, but that wasn't a good match, nor was the Shrimp with the MC501. Synergy is all. For example, I just got done auditioning a pair of PMC IB2i speakers with the Mac amps and preamp, and the combo was terribly boring. Swap in another SS amp, a Reference Line, with a Bent TAP-X passive, and they were very lively. Good to know the LS26 mates well with the Snappers.

Al's reply of 04-03-11 @ +2 :-)

Best,
Sam

A slight correction to my earlier post: The reference to a 0.5 ohm output impedance of the MC2301 applies to the 8 ohm output tap of the amp. If the 4 ohm tap is used instead (and that tap stands a good chance of being sonically preferable with this speaker in terms of amplifier loading), the output impedance would be about 0.27 ohms, bringing the tonal effects of impedance interaction somewhat closer to those of a solid state amp.

Sam -- thank you kindly!

Best regards,
-- Al