Amp to match my Tannoys ?

[Floyddroid]

Croft or Radford work well with Tannoy.

Croft?

[Pharos]

I haven't dismissed valves, but my experience is that they are at least equalled by SS, and often beaten even purely on sound quality alone; bass damping, top extension.

I await a stunning valve amp demonstration, clearly preferable to a SS amp.

[Marco]

Come and visit me, then

Marco.

[montesquieu]

I think that Marco's post 60 is largely assumptive; just because I sate all the numbers does not mean that I am blind to other factors, or deaf.

I admit to being more of an objectivist, but the knowledge we have by no means defines all, they merely state factors which we understand to a large extent, and which we then try to minimise.

Pass has worked a lot on low O/P level distortion.

My Radford STA100 measures lower distortion than many solid state amps; it also has proper bass authority while still sounding like a valve amp should in the uppers and mids. It can be done. Look at Figure 4 below - many solid state amps would struggle to meet these specs.

Not sure whether you are nearer me or Marco but equally I'd be prepared to put my Radford up against any SS competition.

[Marco]

Ah, you can't beat a nice wee set of graphs, to warm the cockles o' yer heart!

Marco.

[struth]

nice responses though

[Pharos]

Yes very nice set of curves.

However, SS has moved the game on in terms of objective measures, and even what I had regarded as an exemplary performance of my SPA2 is now beaten by the Benchmark AHB2, which my friend with a pair of tall JBLs similar to those I responded to recently and owned by a member, has two of. They are stunning to listen to, and the write-up below is shatteringly good as are its curves.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...r-measurements

[montesquieu]

Yes very nice set of curves.

However, SS has moved the game on in terms of objective measures, and even what I had regarded as an exemplary performance of my SPA2 is now beaten by the Benchmark AHB2, which my friend with a pair of tall JBLs similar to those I responded to recently and owned by a member, has two of. They are stunning to listen to, and the write-up below is shatteringly good as are its curves.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/...r-measurements

The Radford data sheet is from 1967.

[mikeyb]

Been a great discussion, most of it over my head

Last night, even though my setup is sitting in the middle of the room all pushed together the speakers started to come on song, most likely due to having been run for about 7 or 8 hours a day since they came back.

I'm more inclined to think that my M-50 Power Amp IS doing the business ( it transformed my PMC 21's ) and it's the Xiang DAC/Pre that's holding everything back.

Ok it's hard to guage properly with the room in an uproar with decorating and the furniture all over the place.

I'm still edging towards just replacing the Pre Amp, but if an amp that suited came along at a decent price I wouldn't be put off going that way too, indecisive, well I used to be ? Now, I'm not so sure

[Marco]

Yes very nice set of curves.

Yes, I completely agree!

The rest of the 'curves' you can keep

Marco.