So update - I have to sheepishly admit a friend lent me a Solid State amplifier last week, and I absolutely fell in love with it. It's been so long since I moved on from SS to tube amps, and I hadn't earnestly tried a SS amp in my system for over 10 years now. It sounds to me like...the Canterbury GR actually prefer a SS driver over tubes, as good as those 200iQ are
The amp is a Phison A2 120SE. I would never, in a million years, have come to this amp on my own and thought: "this is something I need to try". There is only sparse information about it online. But it's kinda blowing me away. It's also a phenomenal match with the new VAC Master preamp. Adrenaline and detail, without the fatigue (long & loud sessions no problem). It's like it woke up the system by an extra amount I didn't even know was there to be had. Because my primary cables were cut specifically for monoblocks, and this Phison is being run as a stereo unit, I've also had to run it much cheaper speaker cables ($1000 AQ Rocket 88 vs. my usual $10K double Kilimanjaro run) and unhook the supertweeters for my listening so far. Didn't seem to hold it back a bit!!
Well so much for being a lifelong tube snob (I still love them tho).
Here's the mess I've made of my system now - Phison is the silver box in the middle.
