comparison between SS Spectral and LAMM tube amp

Spectral are among the quickest ,cleanest and most transparent solid state amps ever made. The Lamm hybrids have a little touch of magic in the midrange while a touch warm but very natural in the bass and good high end. The Lamms are powerful and fatigue free.
With Karmas and their fast and delicate sounding ceramic drivers, I think the Lamms would make a great and synergistic combo. Spectral may be too much of a good thing with Karma.

Lloydelee21, Thank's i am already registered on the Wathsbestforum.com, which I found, as well as this on Audiogon, really Serious and competent. I find that Spectral gears are very well built. I find the combo with the Kharma very balanced, especially after I plugged the Elrod power cords. especially with the Gold. I tried to directly drive the Spectral amp, which is the 150 S2 model, through the variabile output of Berkeley Alpha, but I prefer the result obtained through the Spectral DMC 15. All cables Are MIT M1, except for the digital which is the Oracle MA. I know which Spectral and Lamm are the opposite edges into the spectrum of amp tipology. I scare to loose the great details and deep soundstage which Spectral' s are able to produce.

I cannot speak from experience with these components. But I will say, I think Gpg4blu is on to something...if you elect to go with high-power Spectrals...make very sure (depending on your tastes) that if you wish to have organic bloom, warmth, that you get a source that is very analogue...it will come thru very clean, very pure if you get it right and could be sensational...but the Spectral + Kharma (from what i have read and heard) will be very, very precise about the signal that comes thru. Lamm could well give you a little more 'wiggle room' on the voicing front, though i always thought Kharmas could be a difficult load, and i do not know how the SET Lamms might fare on this point. Good luck! Certainly great equipment to be choosing from...enjoy!

I was not referring to SET amplifier, I was referring to ML 1 or 1.1. Different option is to replace Kharma with Avalon Eidolon, which it seems to be more warm and not so analitic as Kharma are.

back in the day; i owned Kharma and 75 watt Tenor OTL monoblocks. however; my Kharma Exquisite 1D's were a little easier load than the 3.2's. when i had the Kharma's i did listen to the 3.2-Lamm ML2 combo i did not care for it as it had a slightly 'dark' character where the Tenors had fire and sparkle in the mids, and was lacking overall energy and control on the 3.2 as others have mentioned. the Tenor's sounded much more alive and more linear in the bass on the 3.2's to my ears. however; the Tenor's were not very stable and tended to grenade from time to time taking out the ceramic mid-range with it (happened to me twice).

i did not hear the ML-2.1 version on the 3.2's or the even more recent version. they could sound different.

the Kharma 3.2 is a lovely speaker and i would suggest that you try the darTZeel NHB-108 solid state amplifier. i would expect that it's sweeter high frequencies would be a better match for the 3.2's than the Spectral, and it will control the bass wonderfully. the dart will give you much of what tubes can in terms of refinement and delicacy on speaker such as the 3.2.

the 3.2's will come alive with the dart.