diy ESL amp

[jdogg2]

I'm trying to slowly (and somewhat inexpensively) upgrade my current stereo into something a little more on the audiophile side of things. Right now I've got a 100x2 normal ol yamaha amp running to a pair of pioneer speakers with 15" drivers. Eventually I'd like to be powering ESL's with an appropriate amplifier. Whatever will feed the amp is still undecided and rather moot at this point. I really just need some help in deciding what amp to build. I need something that can handle my future ESL's and still drive conventional speakers and sound good. From what I've read about the ESL's I'm going to need something in the 150-200 watt/ch range for the setup I've been looking at building (waldron's no compromise hybrid). I've read alot of good things about the Pass amps but everything seems to be low wattage. 10-20W doesnt seem like enough for loud volumes. Although my ten watt guitar amp does get pretty loud. This is all getting a little confusing on how much power I really need. Any help in getting me started in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[SY]

You want the ability to swing lots of volts and absolute stability into capacitive loads. Amps like the Hafler 500 work very well for most ESLs. My own preference is using tubes here, but chacun a son gout.