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TRL Dude Dilemna

Based on all the high praise for the TRL Dude preamp here and other sites, I took a chance and bought one from a local A-goner to see if it could displace an Air Tight ATC-2 preamp currently in my system. The two amps I currently use are a McIntosh MC-402 and Viva 845 SET Monos. It turns out that the Dude is not compatible with either amps due to an impedance mismatch. So I only got to hear the Dude in a compromised performance mode.
I was not quite wanting to give up on the Dude yet given everyone else's enthusiasm about its performance. I am considering the Samson monos as a natural match. I can convince myself that the Samson's could be better than the MC402..My real issue is that I would have to give up the Vivas. Not sure I can make the leap that a solid state amp will satisfy me as much as those SET Vivas. Then there is the leap of faith that I cannot hear the Samsons with purchasing them....
Has anyone replaced their SET amp with Samsons and remained satisfied with the decision? My speakers are the Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3 which are about 90db efficient with an impedance 6.5 Ohms, +/- 0.75 Ohms 150Hz to 20kHz. Thanks for your input..
tellefsen
tellefsen OP
73 posts
 
I have been in touch with Paul and he has been very helpful. We talked about using something like Jensen transformers, but he does not like the sound of them. We discussed altering the input impedance of the amps..but when we found out that the Viva has in an input transformer, we ruled that out.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,468 posts
 
Well you have learned a good lesson. The Mac has a very low input impedance and is a very poor match with the Dude. I own the Dude and have been shopping for the best amp to go with it and my Soundlab speakers.

1.) You want an amp with high input impedance. This is very important with the Dude. Most tube amps will work as well as many SS smps with at least 60k ohms or so input impedance. The higher the better.

2.) The Samson amps are wonderful, but they do NOT sound like tube SET amps. They will not sound like your current SET tube amps. I also owned the Samson amps with the Dude and while I loved the two, I would never mistake the Samson sound for tubes.

I have what I consider a perfect amp for the Dude and one that works very well with most speakers. The Aesthetix Atlas hybrid amp is simply wonderful. It has an input impedance of 475K ohms ! It uses the same 6sn7 input tubes. It has a very silky smooth tube sound with lots of power and ease. It would be a fine amp for your speakers.

I suggest tube or solid state amps with 100k ohms or more of input impedance for the very best results.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,468 posts
 
What is the input impedance of your Viva amps? Usually tube amps are 100k ohms or so?

I have owned both the Samsons and Mac 402 amps so I know how they differ. The Mac amps sound rather dull and lifeless compared to the Samson amps. I liked the 402, but my point is still accurate. The Samson amps offer improved resolution, detail, imaging and jump factor. The Samson amps also have tighter, more articulate bass. The 402 has a nice big and warm sound. The 402 is like taking a warm bath.

The Samson amps do have the ability to sound intimate like a SET amp, however they don't quite match the body, texture, tone and 3D dimension of a great SET amp. The Samson amps will play music with a greater sense of scale, impact and ease compared to your Viva amps however.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Grannyring,
Good points, impedance matching matters.The Dude with my 300b SET was exceptional(once we replaced the 6sn7 tube in the power supply) very dynamic,lively and large scale with good tone. I feel the Viva with the proper speaker pairing would have excellent scale,impact and ease. It did with my 300b Frankenstein(right speaker match), I know it could with the 845 tybe based Viva.

I heard the Viva Verona paired with the Trenner-Friedl(97db efficient)speaker at CES 2010, it was outstanding in all sonic parameters, yes huge life like scale and utter ease and flow.

My point, proper amp-speaker match is crucial, not just how many watts an amplifier may have.
Best Regards,
Charles
tellefsen OP
73 posts
 
Grannyring,
I have also been thinking about the Atlas. I bought the MC-402 for when I use the system for home theater. It would be awesome if one amp could serve both home theater and two-channel...The Atlas also has the 12V trigger making it
home theater friendly.
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