Sorry Bowtie didn't mean to snub you I had some thing come up in mid reply and had to cut it short. Anyway,I have to agree with you about the 19's as I seem to like the A7's more but have not given up on the 19's just my first impressions. The 511 horn sounds better to me and the 1200 hz crossover makes the 19 a totally different speaker. The 19 sounds like a home speaker where the A7's sounds like a live performance I guess you could say. As for tube vs sand I prefer sand because I have two fisher intergrateds that need work and I have no way to even test the tubes. Also when I attended tech school they no longer taught tube theory so I'm somewhat clueless and will probably stay that way. When I read about the pass amps having tube like sound it seemed like the way to go for me. It's good to know that others are using pass amps with Altecs because all the reviews I've read talk about using them with speakers I have never heard of. It's all about the synergy.