At no point did I sense any lack of firepower with my 50-watts loaners. With the Vivid Audio G1 Spirit which are a little easier to handle than the G1, I rarely turned the volume knob past 12:00. Listening to Beethoven's Fifth on Gardiner's 2012 live recording at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestre Révolutionaire et Romantique (ORR) on my usual system of Coincident preamp based on 101D direct-heated triodes with output transformer into two bridged Luxman M800a, the muscular and spirited energy of the orchestra came out with all its vigor and tonal diversity. In the final "Allegro", it was nigh impossible to be distracted when the ORR's intense energy was so communicative. Listening to another recent version of Beethoven's Fifth (a DSD recording of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra under Jan Wilem de Vriend), the atmosphere changed quite dramatically despite still very infectious energy. These are two very good modern recordings of this warhorse. Jan Wilem de Vriend's take seems more distant to highlight the acoustics of the concert hall whist being a little less attractive from a tonal standpoint compared to Gardiner's period instruments which still show less compression and more dynamic contrast.

Moving to the SPEC set, Gardiner's Fifth lost a bit in timbre compared to my two Luxman M800a but the Japanese amps had the deeper soundstage with more stable stereo imagery. This was especially obvious on the Gardiner version where the DSD recording of de Vriend is more structured. Still I noticed a slightly more accurate spatial view with the SPEC than Luxman amps. The RPA-W3 EX also provided stunning transients. Where the tutti came up a little sharp over the Luxmans, the SPEC amps' speed was impressive, had the better grip and as a result was more liquid and natural. I also caught up with the tonal gap versus my Luxman combo by using a bigger Esprit power cord from their Eureka series in my Audiomat Maestro 3 Reference DAC. Nonetheless, I don't think it worthwhile to use very expensive power cords on the RPA-W3 EX amps themselves since those behave electrically exactly like my bridged Luxman M800a, which is to say work extremely well with their stock generics. They already overflow with vitality and bass authority so no need for more. A cable with an integrated mains filter like the JMF Audio PC3 might be more advisable as four years ago I had excellent results with it and the RSA-717 EX integrated.

On Chie Ayado's DSD album To you, the voice of the Japanese singer acquired more presence with the SPEC than my reference setup whilst using the same cable loom. Even the piano chords seemed a little more accurate, putting less emphasis on the root. The fact that the notes had more accurate attacks probably wasn't unrelated. The same applied to the guitar accompaniment on the track "With a little help from my friends". The harmonics were more realistic in both the treble and mids. The SPEC amps also positioned the guitar further in the background than my Luxman rig but with a sound much closer to my mental reference of a jazz guitar accompanying a singer. To return to more tense and demanding music—which ought not to detract from the artistic and technical interest of Chie Ayado's album—Paavo Järvi's Peer Gynt with the Estonian National Orchestra became extremely revealing of the SPEC amps' calibre. I love the prelude "At the wedding" because it alternates the most vigorous passages with those most calm. It's a direct entrance into the dramatic dimension of Edvard Grieg's music accompanying the play of Henrik Ibsen.

I had never heard the timpani on these tutti so clearly as well nor those in the final "Abduction of the bride". The clarity with which the RPA-W3 EX amplifiers reproduced these excessively charged passages was simply unheard of as far as I was concerned. With the two RPA-W3 EX, the violins maintained all the energy and density I  usually enjoy on my reference system. There was however a little less brilliance than what the Coincident Technology preamplifier's direct-heated triodes bring to the Luxman amps. In my opinion, this was the key distinction between the SPEC and tube amplifiers which generally bring a little more brightness to the upper part of the bandwidth. The SPEC amps champion a discrete touch of vintage dullness that is not unpleasant but leaves its footprint. Even valve amplifiers at the highest level, like those by Kondo, keep this small tube brightness as something very pleasant but artificial. For my taste, I prefer the matte side of SPEC over this somewhat systematic brilliance of tubes. It was also impressive to hear how Camilla Tilling's voice could be so natural and present while merging perfectly with the orchestra in "Arabian dance" and "Solveig's song". As such, the SPEC system was amazingly linear. I failed at detecting any part of the audio spectrum where these amplifiers betrayed even a glimpse of weakness. The voice of Peer Gynt in the "Serenade" too was outstandingly clear and present. Furthermore, ultra-low distortion enabled high SPL to increase the feeling of symphonic realism.

On Séra Una Noche's eponymous first outing produced by Todd Garfinkle for MA Recordings, I was most delighted by the great linearity in amplitude and phase. The soundstage was wide and deep but at the same time very precise and sharply focused. SPEC's superior noise floor made every detail stand out with a lot of clarity, especially the various percussions used by Santiago Vazquez in a sometimes very evanescent fashion. High precision in attacks favoured incredible tonal diversity. With tube amplifiers, one can sometimes think that this recording is almost too reverberant. However, the RPA-W3 EX units delivered a lot of ambient detail without making me feel claustrophobic with echo. That highlighted once again the sonic characteristics of the SPEC Corp's electronics which tend to reduce this systematic tube brilliance by pointing at a beautiful analog sweetness that is often the providence of very exclusive brands in the high-end audio business.