etc6849
100+ Head-Fier
In my personal opinion when I was comparing side by side my current setup vs carbon I got a slightly deeper headstage, more layers however it was a bit more diffused than on carbon, and overall the sound was a bit cleaner but those are very subtle differences and I would be just as happy with the Carbon.
Something to be aware of is that iESL sound with vary with different amps connected to it, I went through 3 iterations before being satisfied beyond carbon.
First setup - Yamaha A-S2200 into iESL - not terrible but I would definitely pick Carbon over it.
Second setup - Flux Volot via its headphone XLR output into iESL - much better than yamaha on par with Carbon for me.
And finally my current setup - Holo Serene preamp into DIY amp based on Purifi 1ET400A and Neurochrome input buffers into iESL - slight preference compared to Carbon, incredible clarity, power and staging.
Of course that's just my opinion and I might be biased since when you build something yourself you enjoy it more. Next step I'm saving for Holo May and will be building new Hypex Nilai500 amp when it releases.
That amp performs very very well from a noise perspective.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...easurements-of-purifi-1et400a-amplifier.7984/
Definitely in the top 5 best performing amps I've seen measurements for:
My personal experience with sensitive speakers and even sensitive headphones has shown the lower the noise and lower power levels, the better. I suspect you are at the point of diminishing returns wrt your amp. At some point, as you eliminate more and more noise, your dynamic range will be limited by your ears and whichever DAC you are using.
Sadly, I think my main tri-amped speaker setup and headphone setup has no more room for improvement.