New to thiis -- asking for comment and input about Ethos Speaker

Hi all,

am a long term owner of Martin Logan who is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. My first purchased was Aerius model back in 1995. Currently I owned Motion 40 and MartinLogan Encore TF Center Channel for my home theater.

Am currently planning to set up my stereo only system. I am planning to purchase Ethos (already listen, sound great and perfect for my living room), but am planning to pair it with my old hifi which are SONY 1000ESD preamp and Carver Power Amp -- a500x THX or a760x THX (I collected Carver Power Amps). For this set up, I will use it only to listen to music which through Vinyl and CD -- Any comment or input will be highly appreciated? Thanks

Cheers

Congratulations on choosing the Ethos. I'm not familiar with your electronics but that won't stop me from recommending that you get a nice tube preamp. Any improvement in your electronics will definitely be heard through your Ethos.

Hi Johnny, since I actually owned a Sony TA-E1000ESD (and later a 2000ESD) pre-amp, and various iterations of Carver / Sunfire amps, I'll chime in here.

First, while the 1000esd was a ground-breaking pre-amp for it's day, it is nowhere near what you'd want to put in front of any speaker these days, much less a highly revealing MartinLogan. It had serious digital 'grain' when compared to later units, the improvement stepping up to the 2000ESD was significant. The only digital preamps from that era that still hold up are the old Meridians (I had 565 then a 568), all the rest are bested by even the cheapest modern AVR (used as a pre).

If you want to use a vintage pre-amp and are into Carver, look for a nice Carver C-4000 preamp, I had one and wish I had kept it for a vintage setup. Make sure you have it re-capped, as just due to age it will need that.

I'm not a tube fan at all, so I'd recommend any modern SS analog preamp.

The old Carver amps you listed will do fine with a Theos, just make sure they have been serviced recently, as they can drift out of spec and run hot. A more modern Sunfire would be better, but not by too much.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

Hi Jonathan,

thanks so much for your comment and input, truly appreciated and it helps shape my thinking....

One option that I am thinking now is to match the Ethos speaker either with McIntosh C50 Tube Preamp + Carver Power Amp or go with Integrated Amplifier MA7900. Thus, it will last 15 years or more.

Any input on using integrated amp for Ethos type of speaker? Thanks

Cheers

dh46374 said:

Congratulations on choosing the Ethos. I'm not familiar with your electronics but that won't stop me from recommending that you get a nice tube preamp. Any improvement in your electronics will definitely be heard through your Ethos.

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Thanks Bro....