Preamp & Amp or Intergrated for Ethos

Hi all,

after long and careful review (three months), I finally made a down payment to purchase ML Ethos speaker. I should get my speakers in 4-5 weeks time. Therefore, my next purchase will be the engine that will run this baby! I have two options, thus any comment or input from ML owners will be very much appreciated.

I will use this set up for music ONLY through Vinyl and CD/SACD. Mostly to listen Jazz and 70s/80s R&B.

Option 1
- Preamp and Amp -- MC C50 (preamp) and power by either Carver A-760x THX, a 380 watts - 2 channel (bought it brand new about 6 years old, rarely use) or Mac MC275 (tube) 75 Watts - 2 channel

Option 2 (integrated)
- McIntosh MA7900

My dealer is pushing me to go to option 1. Its a huge investment for me thus I do hope it will last until I retire from this earth!

Thank you for your comment and feedback.

Note: as you see in my other thread, currently I owned Motion 40 for my home theater set up and back in the mid 90s I did owned ML electrostatic speaker (forget the model name)

Cheers

Ask your dealer to provide above mentioned equipment to your home and then purchase the ones you prefer based on your home demo.

MPS said:

Ask your dealer to provide above mentioned equipment to your home and then purchase the ones you prefer based on your home demo.

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unfortunately, they would not allow home demo. I did listen to Ethos with MA 7900. It sound wonderful -- unfortunately, the shop do not have MC C50 on hand. Thanks

Cheers

If you have already put down money for the speakers, they should allow a home demo. Threaten to go somewhere else for amplification!

Bernard said:

If you have already put down money for the speakers, they should allow a home demo. Threaten to go somewhere else for amplification!

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I agree with Bernard. If they want to mark the products up, then you should be able to try them in your home before committing to them. If they won't, you may as well purchase online for a discount.

There are many tube integrated's that will drive Martin Logan's, especially the easier to drive varieties of today. I'm driving a pair of ESL's with a 6 watt KT88 SET amp and preamp combo made by Dennis Had, now retired, from CARY audio fame. Since retiring from Cary, Dennis has been building small SET amps, and pre's, and selling them on feebay. Most of the amps sell within a week. Bob Carver has been building tube amps and selling them on feebay as well, but BC's are ultra expensive. The Dennis Had line, called INSPIRE, is all affordable. A KT150 based SET goes for less than $1700.

Here's a shot of Dennis' 6V6 based Inspire SET amp:



Depending upon how you listen, I'd highly recommend a nice tube integrated. Just for kicks, I drove a pair of CLSIIz panels with an 8 watt Class A 300B SET integrated a few years back. The room was small, but my ears gave out before the integrated was strained.

Here's my former CLS' driven by that former 8 watt 300B SET integ:

johnny saleh said:

Hi all,

after long and careful review (three months), I finally made a down payment to purchase ML Ethos speaker. I should get my speakers in 4-5 weeks time. Therefore, my next purchase will be the engine that will run this baby! I have two options, thus any comment or input from ML owners will be very much appreciated.

I will use this set up for music ONLY through Vinyl and CD/SACD. Mostly to listen Jazz and 70s/80s R&B.

Option 1
- Preamp and Amp -- MC C50 (preamp) and power by either Carver A-760x THX, a 380 watts - 2 channel (bought it brand new about 6 years old, rarely use) or Mac MC275 (tube) 75 Watts - 2 channel

Option 2 (integrated)
- McIntosh MA7900

My dealer is pushing me to go to option 1. Its a huge investment for me thus I do hope it will last until I retire from this earth!

Thank you for your comment and feedback.

Note: as you see in my other thread, currently I owned Motion 40 for my home theater set up and back in the mid 90s I did owned ML electrostatic speaker (forget the model name)

Cheers

Click to expand...

Remember that the current crop of ML speakers, including this one, all go below one ohm at higher frequencies. Only good direct coupled amplifiers will give you the airy, transparent high end that makes them so engaging. Amps with output transformers will roll off the highs since they can't impedance match and you'll wonder where the joy went after a while. Sure, if you had a two ohm tap on the amplifier it would help but then the other frequencies are impacted. I suggest a neutral sounding tube pre-amp (ie. McIntosh C2300 or C2500) to take the edge off poor recordings and a fairly powerful solid state amp. It makes no sense but more power gives more bass control even though the woofers are self powered. Of course, a good hybrid integrated amp will work fine too. I used a Unison Research with some great 12AU7 tubes in the preamp section for a while with great success while I was selling my McIntosh amplifier.

Since you already have the Carver amp, you might as well give it a listen with your Ethos before you buy something else. See if you can get the dealer to loan you a tube preamp. If he won't, you would be fully justified in going to another dealer who will allow you to take a preamp and/or amp home to audition. Maybe you know someone who has a tube preamp who would bring it over.

You made a great decision in buying the Ethos. They sound beautiful. They will reveal the quality of your electronics, though. So hook them up to what you've got first. They may sound great with what you already own. If not, then start trying to figure out what is the weak link and what to upgrade next. Take your time and let your ears adjust to each change you make before laying out any more cash. Enjoy your Ethos!

Thank you friends for your wonderful insights!

This coming Sunday, am going to a HiFi shop where I can try Ethos speaker with Tubes amp and preamp from MAC and various brands that the store carry. Fortunately in Jakarta, all the high-end HiFi shops is located with in one mall. I agreed with dh46374 comment, where I will try to listen with my Carver Amp and see how it goes.

I will keep you updated on my decision sometimes next week.

Cheers

the marvellous thing with using pre power is you can experiment so much
I am using a 14k[new] power amp with a 395 pound [s/h] and it sounds delicious . when I can I will upgrade the pre amp as the power amp really does sound marvellous [msb s200]

guys,

just an update that after I visited my dealers and other high-end audio within the same shopping mall, my conclusion at this moment will go to integrated system to accompany soon to be Ethos speaker.

I have shortlisted the system into two brands, either McIntosh MA7900 or Audio Research VSi75. I did listen to both systems with Ethos speaker at my dealer shop. I felt both sound excellence -- surely each of them have their owned advantage, but AR may sound better or perfect with the size of my living room.

I don't go for Pre-amp + power amp mainly due to space and simplicity -- hassle free (in a way) and budget. As mentioned before, I will use this set up purely to listen to stereo music -- Vinyl, CD and SACD.

If I go for AR VSi75, it will be my first entering the Tube world, thus any comment or input about long term use (reliability) with Tube equipment or set up is truly welcome...

Other key reason why I chose both brands mainly because they have establish dealer network within the country -- thus any future problem I can just contact them. Its fully guarantee not just by the manufacture, but also the dealer.

I will only make the purchase once the speaker arrive and also after trying out with my "oldies but goodies" preamp and power amp.

Cheers

I demoed both the AR vsi75 and the Krell s300i and the 500i, both of which are cheaper. Though I ended up with an AR reference pre and power, I found the AR integrated to be nowhere close to the pre-pro combo, while the Krell integrated was of a surprisingly high quality. I have had a couple of friends in my room who preferred my s300i to the AR pre-pro. Suggest you get a demo - you might end up saving money - if not, you can always go back to the VSi75

Good recommendation Bonzo... I have customers using the AR with great results and quality sound!

Thank you Bonzo.

I did listen to AR Pre and Power set up and its indeed marvelous.... fortunately, I will have over a month until I make my final decision.

Once again, thank you all for your insights and comment.

Cheers

johnny saleh said:

Thank you Bonzo.

I did listen to AR Pre and Power set up and its indeed marvelous.... fortunately, I will have over a month until I make my final decision.

Once again, thank you all for your insights and comment.

Cheers

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My point was to look at the Krell integrated

Hola. I just listened to the new Bel Canto model C5i, which gave a very good impression too. It is less expensive than those, and a truly high end sound! This amp will drive your Ethos nicer, with better extension at the highs, and very tubed like sound. It exhibit wide sound stage, with tons of dynamics. The cymbals are life like, strings are very well defined, and the voices are not glare at all. The wind instruments are well balanced. It is a class D power amplifier section. My ears did like it very much! I caught myself with goose bumps and my feet tapping along with the music... Happy listening.

bonzo said:

My point was to look at the Krell integrated

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I am planning to try out Krell either this coming weekend or in the next two weeks at my dealer shop.

Cheers