"A. D'A." wrote in message
m
Is a pretty large ribbon and if I remember correctly it is rated up to
400 watts. You are right about it being an easy load, if I remember
the graphs correctly it never dropped below 6 ohms and had an easy
phase. It was virtually a resistive load. This is why I was thinking
I might get away with a preamp that was not necessarily a top preamp.
That being said, I'm not going through all the trouble of working on
my hometheater to use an amp that is going to be suboptimum. Price is
not an issue, but being practical, I don't like throwing away money on
audio jewelry. Quality and reliability are what matters. The one
thing that concerns me about pro amps is fans though.

The owner of the USA 1300 I mentioned has his amp mounted in a console right
between the two speakers. He used a resistor to slow the fan down, as the
heating during audiophile use is only a tiny fraction of the worst that the
amp is normally prepared to handle. Sound quality is excellent. The owner
has a similar approach to yours. He's got the money to spend, but he doesn't
want to spend it foolishly.