Pre-amp suggestions for Thiel 2.4/Pass Labs XA30.5

I thought the point of the autoformer was to provide the same watts into any load from a give tap? Load tolerant?

A Chinese amp with an unusual tube, that will put out less power than the amp you currently find to inadequately power the speakers your driving? Good luck with that!

Does that mean it would provide the same power even if the speaker is demanding more power? Let's keep in mind, that it isn't power alone that the Thiels are asking for.

A Chinese amp with an unusual tube, that will put out less power than the amp you currently find to inadequately power the speakers your driving? Good luck with that!

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Ha... well, I see you have a strong opinion on that! I thought I was comparing 60W (the XA-30.5 into 4Ohms) to 160W out of the EE. Still learning how to compare amp output though...

As for the Mac, all I read about was the response into varying loads from a single tap... so the way I read it, from any single output, they will double down in provided Watts as the speaker's impedance drops by half (i.e., goes 4 to 2 ohms).

Here's a quote from a discussion about Mac autotransformers:

The output autoformers have different windings in them so the 2,4 & 8 ohm taps are like 3 different amps that are optimized for speakers with the corresponding 2,4 & 8 ohm resistances. If you have a MC501 rated at 500 watts and you hook up a 4 ohm speaker to the 8 ohm tap you will get the expected 1000 watt output (maybe a little less). This could cause the amp to go into protection though, it is usually best to match the speakers to the correct tap.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-71322.html