My bits and pieces

[hoopsontoast]

See, I dont like the way it looks, looks a bit cheap to me but then I loved the look of the Decware and thats just a box with some tubes and naked transformer so what do I know! :P
Yeah it does quite well, I think maybe not quite as well as the Zen in terms of resolution, speed and soundstage although a bit better bass but not as good as the Audion Sterling/LA3 combo in bass depth but then it is about half the price.

I seem to prefer the Kolts with tubes, having had the TA-F770ES, 670ES, Restek Challenger and PMA-2000AE with them, they tend to miss something in the midrange, seem less open and worse at low listening levels.

[Gromit]

Yup, I'd agree it doesn't exactly shout high quality in terms of fit & finish, and those wooden bits are truly awful (much rather have them gloss black) but there's something undeniably sweet about a small valve amp. It's like the KEL84, the Icon 20PP - they're the equivalent of Bonsai trees to me. Lovely.

Interesting your comments about the Kolts being volume-sensitive; I didn't play them loud at all (they weren't mine after all!) but the ProAcs although sounding much larger, only really come alive at higher volume with plenty of power going through. They can shout a bit though, and definitely have a voume sweet spot at which point they're wonderful.

[hoopsontoast]

Thats my point, they sound much better with tube amps at lower volumes, maybe the slight lack of control (over the SS amps) helps with the lean nature of the Kolts and fills them out a little.
The Kolts also sound a fair bit smoother in the treble with tubes, the Restek sounded thin and squeeky with them in the week that I tried them together.

Yeah the small amps are nice, the Decware was great for that, makes the Puresound look man sized!

[Gromit]

Would be interested to hear how the A10 copes when listened to at higher volumes through the Kolts.

[Dingdong]

Had a listen to the A10 yesterday through my speakers. Sounded pretty bloody good. Excellent vfm.

[Gromit]

Had a listen to the A10 yesterday through my speakers. Sounded pretty bloody good. Excellent vfm.

What speakers are you using, Mark?

[Dingdong]

B&W DM2a's. Had no problems driving them to decent levels. Sounded rather lovely. Didn't lose out in the bass to my Kel80's.

[Gromit]

B&W DM2a's. Had no problems driving them to decent levels. Sounded rather lovely. Didn't lose out in the bass to my Kel80's.

That's impressive, certainly bearing in mind the 2a's are around mid-80's db/w

[hoopsontoast]

Well been giving the Kolts some stick today (they are around ~80dB ) and its not bad, not quite the composure as the Audion at higher volumes, the bass softens a little but certainly not bad. The Audion was an 18wpc SE KT88/KT120 amp so I would have expected a bit more 'reserve' over the ~10wpc EL84 PP Puresound.

Hopefully collecting some new speakers to try, they have been on the 'to-do-list' fo a good while now, some KEF Reference 104/2's which should go well, a resistive 4Ohm load and 92dB/2.83v. Will be interesting to compare.

[hoopsontoast]

System by RSdesignUK, on Flickr


System by RSdesignUK, on Flickr