TSLGuy, Wow thats some pretty serious Stuff! I do not have the knowlege you have so put alot of faith in the sales person but then I felt it would not hurt to here other opinions. Another guy was trying to sell me a Cary Audio CAD200 it also has a tube setup. What I am trying to do is power Martin Logan electrostatic speakers. They all tell me if I am into Music, not surround, go two channel amp, pre-amp. I am trying to save money and use my Integra or Denon as a pre-amp and buy a good two channel amp that will deliver 250 - 300 watts per- chan @ 4 ohms. Are you actually saying this Buttller amp is a $3,000 piece of junk? It would take away from a good sounding pair of speakers like the Martin Logan?? So what Amps do you recommend? Boy I am back to square one, because I respect your opinion, and I am not yet locked into the Amp deal, but have purchased the speakers. Please help and advise.
OK. I have a definite recommendation. Without a doubt the Quad 909 is the amp you are looking for. Quad stands for Quality Unit Audio Domestic.
Quad was founded in 1936 by the late Peter Walker OBE.
Just before the end of WWII he moved to Huntingdon Cambridgeshire. In the post war years he developed tube amps of unrivaled performance and quality.
In 1957 he introduced the the world's first full range electrostatic loudspeaker. what has now come to be known as the Quad 57. In 1963 he started R & D on the famous Quad 63 Electrostatic loudspeaker. It was 16 years in genesis. Along the way he designed the worlds first transistor amp unconditionally stable into all loads. The Quad 303. These amps are still highly sought after 40 years on. I have one of his originals, and I have never been inside the case!
Then he had another of his strokes of pure genius, the Class C feed forward amplifier. What Peter called his current dumping amplifier. There first was the 405 followed by the 405 2 and the 606 finally his last version the 909.
After retiring due to ill health and his subsequent death, Quad was eventually acquired by the current owners International Audio group.
Now the genius of Peter's current dumping amps, is that apart from being unconditionally stable into all loads, is that they maintain performance year after year. The components can age and drift in value within wide margins and the performance of the amp is unaffected. The performance of the amp is set by the very high quality class A amp. This provides the error correction to the dumper transistors. There is no crossover distortion. They are superb unfussy amplifiers that you just use and forget.
In your situation the choice of one of Peter's current dumping amps is particularly apt, as Peter Walker was renowned for his electrostatic loudspeakers. Electrostatics present a highly reactive load to an amp, which embarrasses many. However the 909 handles this type of load with ease. It will deliver 250 watts per channel into four ohms.
http://www.quad-hifi.co.uk/model.php?sector_id=2&range_id=3&model_id=12
Galen Carol Audio offer it at an excellent price. MRSP is now $1840 and they are $500 under that.
http://www.gcaudio.com/cgi-bin/store/showProduct.cgi?id=93
I know of no better amp at any price and can recommend this amp with unreserved confidence. I own two of them and eight 405 2s
This Class C feed forward design was one of many of Peter Walker's patents. This paten is now held by IAG. The 909 is the only Class C feed forward current dumping amplifier available.
This is a good read.
http://www.audioxpress.com/bksprods/products/bkia1.htm
And yes, I'm saying that BK Butler amp, is founded on BS, and the advertising
puffery is loony and designed to appeal to those with more money than sense and no technical background. Tube amps belong in museums not heir domestic audio systems.
IAG have resurrected Peter's justly famous Quad II tube amp. While Peter was alive and owned the company, he steadfastly refused to reintroduce that amp. He just would have no truck with the loony set, and constantly spared with them. He predicted they would do immense harm to the development of audio, which indeed they have.
