Hi All,
A few comments from me for consideration. By far the best system i have ever encountered was a massive Western Electric installation at Munich running the field coil 555 drivers as field coil Jensen woofers. The sensitivity was well north of 115dB with an entire auditorium being filled with a 0.5 watt 252 Silbatone amplifier.
In these early days of compression drivers, solid state amplifiers didn’t exist. Valves were the order of the day to drive the monster horns.
The system noise floor was silent in this installation and as I understand pretty much the same every year in terms of being quiet.
How would the system sound running solid state amplification (other than the sub 40hz subwoofer that they employ sometimes) - I don’t know but am nigh on certain they would laugh at you and tell you that you have missed the point and the quality of the few needed watts is absolutely everything. Clearly we will never know for sure but I have strong doubts that the tonal purity and seductiveness coupled to the speed and emotional nuances would be possible.
Finally from all accounts the U3 has been largely an epic failure at its public outings (which I suppose isn’t that much of a surprise) - is this down to solid state amplifiers being employed or a badly derived dsp crossover? I don’t know.
That said I am well aware and versed with the various amplifiers designed for similar ALE complex installs like the Italian Yamamura 5 ways ALE using current based ss amplification and the Yamamura Dionisio together with Jean Hiraga’s low watt class A amps.
One final thing I forgot to add. The ALE drivers have very low power handling on the whole like the Gotos and the vintage / modern 555 variants so you have to be super careful using a powerful solid state amplifier! It is very different to use this power on a modern pro compression driver from BMS that is designed with output in mind and high power handling.
I have heard all the recent iterations of the WE systems in Munich as I am lucky enough to go every year. Not all the installations are that successful but the best ones are largely as you describe. I would still argue that the tonality of even the best ones is still a bit "vintage" but the resolution and dynamics are simply second to none. A few years ago they had a pair of speakers from the 1930s that are still the only ones to have made my wife cry during an opera playback (ok, it was in Russian and she is Russian so that might have a bit to do with it...but the sound an performance were breathtaking!). That said, I find the Livining Voice Vox Olympian/Elssyian with Kondo gear to be ultimately more realistic because the tonality is spot on as well.
I can't imagine running these sensitive speakers with all SS gear...hearing the U3 this way with Pass was not a convincing experience...