High Current, High Watt Solid State (ie. Innersound ESL) Vs Tubes for Summits?

[Jbannas]

What are people's opinions about high current SS vs tubes to power the Summit panels?
I'm considering going with an Innersound ESL 300 MKII or some Thor TPA-30 monoblocks for my Summits.
My media room is about 50/50 for music and home theater.
There seems to be a lot of love for the Innersound amps, but I'm wondering how it would compare to some nice, tubed monos. (Yes, I know you have to try them out to see which you'd prefer, but it's not an easy process to get both in house to audition)
This choice will also help determine with path I take for a pre.

 

[Rich]

If you are doing 50/50 music/movies, you may prefer SS over tubes. Movies can run up a lot of hours on tubes, which can get expensive to replace. Plus the tubes add a lot of heat to the room. But I have to say that both can sound great on the Summits. If you can afford it, check out Roger Sanders' (designer of the innersound amps) newer ESL amps. I have his ESL monoblocs on my Summits and they are awesome. Roger would probably allow you to do an in-home audition. Check out his website at sanderssoundsystems.com.

 

[Pneumonic]

The Innersound is awesome and is the perfect amp to drive your Summits.

 

[JonFo]

+1 on the Sanders / Innersound amps. Higher performance, lower cost of operations, what's not to like?

 

[twich54]

as Rich said given your 50/50 usage I'd stick with SS. Along with Roger's offerings both Pass and Plinius work superbly with our Logans.

 

[beanbag]

Speaking of Pass, Nelson also designed the original line of Adcom 535, 545, and 555 amps. (But not the version II) And then he went back and did the 5300, 5400, 5500 series too. It's like Vintage Early Rembrandt, or something.

 

[twich54]

almost forgot, one of the bargains (IMO) in all of SS amplification...................... Parasound JC-1 MonoBlocks. I recently heard these beauties driving a friends Maggie 3.7's.....Magic !

 

[hifinutt]

the innersound will be great I am sure but I really love my msb s200 200 watts of class A which sounds absolutely awesome

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?66177-MSB-S200-Amplifier

 

[Rich]

200 watts of class A which sounds absolutely awesome

Wow, I bet it does. And I bet it puts out some heat too.

 

[bonzo]

Hi is the sound of the Sanders more like a tube amp or a solid state? Is it airy, does not get bright? Also what's the difference between the Magtech and the ESL amp?

 

[JonFo]

The Sanders is a neutral clean amp, unlike tubes, which often color the sound (especially with complex loads like ESLs).

The Magtech has a more sophisticated power supply that can keep the amp operating in it's target range over a wider power/frequency combo. So it is worth the extra coin, but the regular ESL is no slouch and performs extremely well. The current generation ESL amps use newly available output transistors with sensors that enable dynamic bias adjustments as the unit heats up, reducing both heat generation and managing to minimize THD.

 

[Rich]

Like Jon said, the Sanders ESL amps are absolutely neutral. Not warm nor cold; not bright nor dark; not harsh nor soft. They don't accentuate any portion of the frequency range. They don't really have a "sound" of their own, per se. They are powerful and dynamic, but they just amplify the signal fed to them in the cleanest, truest manner of any amp I have heard. Incredibly transparent. Combine this with the transparency of ML speakers and the combination is absolutely revealing of the quality of the upstream components and source material.

 

[twich54]

Wow, I bet it does. And I bet it puts out some heat too.

what I find interesting is for an amp biased into Class A operation and with it's output, it's power draw at idle is quite low and it's heat sinks quite small !

 

[Bernard]

what I find interesting is for an amp biased into Class A operation and with it's output, it's power draw at idle is quite low and it's heat sinks quite small !

Most unusual. I wonder if it really is Class A.

 

[MPS]

High power class-A amplifiers are quite rare. I would expect a 200W amplifier to idle at about 1kW per channel. That's lot of energy to dissipate.

 

[eknuds01]

What are people's opinions about high current SS vs tubes to power the Summit panels?
I'm considering going with an Innersound ESL 300 MKII or some Thor TPA-30 monoblocks for my Summits.
My media room is about 50/50 for music and home theater.
There seems to be a lot of love for the Innersound amps, but I'm wondering how it would compare to some nice, tubed monos. (Yes, I know you have to try them out to see which you'd prefer, but it's not an easy process to get both in house to audition)
This choice will also help determine with path I take for a pre.

If you are looking to drop that much cash on a high powered set of amps, I'd absolutely audition both kinds.

IMO, I would not sink a lot of money into high quality amplification for movie watching. Get an amp that has enough power (some beefy integrated amp may work just fine) and I'd also try out a tube for the panels when I listen to music. Why not have the best of both worlds if you prefer tubes on the panels? Yes, I am stating that you may want two sets of amps for music and movies (switch cables from one set to the other if need be). If you can't really tell the difference, then just go with a SS amp. The innersound is a terrific amp and I don't think I've ever read a single negative review about that particular unit.

 

[hifinutt]

Wow, I bet it does. And I bet it puts out some heat too.

yes its not too bad though but the richness and sense of presence is beautiful and funnily enough right now I am using a 135 pound passive pre with it !!

 

[Pneumonic]

The Sanders is a neutral clean amp, unlike tubes, which often color the sound (especially with complex loads like ESLs).

The Magtech has a more sophisticated power supply that can keep the amp operating in it's target range over a wider power/frequency combo. So it is worth the extra coin, but the regular ESL is no slouch and performs extremely well. The current generation ESL amps use newly available output transistors with sensors that enable dynamic bias adjustments as the unit heats up, reducing both heat generation and managing to minimize THD.

FWIW. Both the Magtech and the Innersound ESL amps I have sound identical to each other whether powering the stat panels or the dynamic woofer of my Sanders speakers.

 

[Pneumonic]

Like Jon said, the Sanders ESL amps are absolutely neutral. Not warm nor cold; not bright nor dark; not harsh nor soft. They don't accentuate any portion of the frequency range. They don't really have a "sound" of their own, per se. They are powerful and dynamic, but they just amplify the signal fed to them in the cleanest, truest manner of any amp I have heard. Incredibly transparent. Combine this with the transparency of ML speakers and the combination is absolutely revealing of the quality of the upstream components and source material.

This is perfectly stated and of absolute accuracy, Rich.

I dare say that these amps really are the epitome of the "straighwire with gain" ideal.

 

[Pneumonic]

High power class-A amplifiers are quite rare. I would expect a 200W amplifier to idle at about 1kW per channel. That's lot of energy to dissipate.

Indeed and, these days, needlessly so I might add.