Tube amps for Alexia's

[MylesBAstor]

Yes, they had the very first X1/Grand Slamms according to Ed at CJ, who retired a few years ago,...and I have the photo of their listening room which had the newer Grand Slamms in it as well. Transparent Audio, CJ and Wilson Grand Slamms were one of a number of regular triumvirates at Wilson, CJ and Transparent in their respective listening rooms many years ago as I understand. Transparent now have the XLFs, but I don't know if they still have a CJ amp among the amps they have there.

Martin Colloms review of the Grand Slamm from many, many years ago, also had particularly positive things to say about the CJ Premier 12, Transparent Cable and the Grand Slamms.

That's right lose track of the Wilson speakers Thanks!

Not sure about Transparent any more. Years ago when went to Transparent, it was cj, Krell and VTL. (Know they have the Doshi phono there now too )

 

[LL21]

That's right lose track of the Wilson speakers Thanks!

Not sure about Transparent any more. Years ago when went to Transparent, it was cj, Krell and VTL. (Know they have the Doshi phono there now too )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-EVoJ9CCK4

Here is a video of the XLFs arriving at Transparent Audio along with the outgoing X2.2s. You will a split second of the room...ML 33 mono?, plus 2 other amps? Cannot tell what they are...perhaps someone here knows.

here is an older video showing older X Series Wilsons plus CJ, ML and others http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEaXgMBi64g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6gDrY2hnbM And another showing I think the current setup...Harmonic Resolution Racks, ML, Krell, maybe Lamm/Gryphon, VTL,

 

[PeterA]

That's right lose track of the Wilson speakers Thanks!

Not sure about Transparent any more. Years ago when went to Transparent, it was cj, Krell and VTL. (Know they have the Doshi phono there now too )

That's interesting. I was at the Transparent factory last February and heard the XLFs, but they did not have any phono source in the set up. They do have two similar rooms and perhaps the Doshi phono was in the other room with LPs. I heard only digital tracks selected from an iPad.

 

[MylesBAstor]

That's interesting. I was at the Transparent factory last February and heard the XLFs, but they did not have any phono source in the set up. They do have two similar rooms and perhaps the Doshi phono was in the other room with LPs. I heard only digital tracks selected from an iPad.

I don't know. When I last sent my phono cables back for matching, Josh indicated they knew Nick's unit very well One of their biggest retailers is also Nick's distributot

 

[PeterA]

I don't know. When I last sent my phono cables back for matching, Josh indicated they knew Nick's unit very well One of their biggest retailers is also Nick's distributot

So Myles, Do you actually know if they have a phono source up at Transparent and if it they have the Doshi unit there? I know that Larry at Paragon is a big Transparent and Wilson dealer and that he distributes Doshi, but from what I saw when I was there, they only listen to digital in their demo/research room.

I asked them about it, in fact, and Josh responded by saying that they depend on the consistency of digital for their listening/testing. They can play the same 10 second cut of a cello repeatedly on digital as they make adjustments to a product in development. Vinyl is not conducive to this repeated use, not to mention how analog sound can change over time as the cartridge changes, VTA, VTF etc.

Perhaps they have the Doshi unit and analog in some of their employees' private systems. They seem to all be musicians (and music lovers) up at Transparent.

 

[still-one]

Perhaps they have the Doshi unit and analog in some of their employees' private systems. They seem to all be musicians (and music lovers) up at Transparent.

I do know that one of Transparent's employees has a Doshi set-up. We recently discussed about this at the late October Paragon "Night of Great Independents" event. I have no idea whether he would want to be identified so I won't.

 

[MJB]

I've heard the Alexia with ARC Ref 150 and the results were exceptional in a large size listening room at the local dealer. The rest of the chain was ARC Ref 5SE, REF CD9, and the results were very musical. Cables were latest Shunyata top of the line interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords.

I ordered my pair of Alexia after the Wilson / D'Agostino event that I posted last week and will be running them in a slightly smaller room with Ref 210s modified by ARC to use KT120s.

I know this set up very well. About a month ago I visited this store and spent a couple of hours listening to this setup except they were using the ARC Ref5SE. Listened to the Ref 150 and later to the D'Agostino stereo amp with the Alexias. To make a long story short, I ordered a pair of the Alexias and a D'Agostino stereo amp.

Congrats on your Alexias!

Mike

 

[SAMMAN]

I've used ARC REF 150 to run my Alexia's, as well as the REF 250 , but decided in the end on the Thrax Heros Hybrid Tube/fet amplifiers...Sublime tube sound with the control of solid state amps...
For me a match made in heaven..

 

[mbovaird]

I've used ARC REF 150 to run my Alexia's, as well as the REF 250 , but decided in the end on the Thrax Heros Hybrid Tube/fet amplifiers...Sublime tube sound with the control of solid state amps...
For me a match made in heaven..

SAMMAN - thanks. I've since tried a number of different amps on the Alexia's, including McIntosh 601's (wonderful), D'Agostino (wonderful), Pass XA100.5 (wonderful, but bass was loose), Cary CAD 211 FE (very good, surprising good bass), VAC phi200 (not a good synergy), etc.