Just posted this on another forum where someone wanted to know how the Kondo Kaguras (50 Watt dual parallel 211 SET's) drove the S7's, thought it might be pertinent to this subject......
Music played was "Big Bang"/Korean Pop Music which has hard driving, riveting bass throughout the album.
The S7's now have about 250 hours on them. They surely are not totally broken in yet, but you would not think it if you heard them. We connected up the Absolare preamp and the Kondo Kaguras to the S7's today. The room size is 18' wide, 35' long with 11' ceilings. The overall sound is glorious. The bass is is tight, deep and mesmerizing just as it is with 400 watt SS amps. Not much difference, if any vs. the SS amps with the feeling of power and driving the S7's in either the bass or overall soundstage presence.
Playing at 90dbish with peaks around 95db with hard driving bass tracks the sound is "relaxed", but powerful, with illuminating textures throughout the spectrum, including the bass. The overall perception is a huge 3D holographic soundstage, extremely solid images. Width and depth of the soundstage are the same as with the SS amps, but the layering and space around individual instruments is more pronounced with the Kaguras. More holographic with the Kaguras vs the SS which you would expect.
The bass is possibly the strongest attribute of the overall sound. The Bass on the S7's is totally balanced with all other frequencies, never more pronounced than it should be. It is very full bodied bass, but with texture, clarity and transparency as well. Although the soundstaging and liquid midrange are hard to ignore.
Haven't run the Kondo Ginga TT or the transport, I'm addicted to Tidal on the Aurender N10 and it's pretty much all I listen to at this point, but that's just a personal preference. I understand that the Ginga and transport will be sonically superior but the overall experience of Tidal for me has changed my overall listening experience in a very positive way. I listen and enjoy music, not equipment, more than I ever have.....and that's with 50 years of listening experience
Anyway, the Kaguras drive the S7's with no "issues"......nice.