I have a similar system. A few notes. Look for an amp that has a lot of headroom for the tubes. Heat changes are more of an issue than simple run time - turning tubes on and off shorten life expectancy faster than leaving them on. Look for an amp that has individual biasing. Lots of designers try to sell single point biasing as a feature - but it usually means you need matched power tubes - so replacement cost gets multiplied by 4. I run the fronts and rears on tube amps and use SS for center and Atmos speakers. They do make amplifier selectors, but I have never found one I trusted. I have been looking into Mapletree Audio recently and they have a product that may simplify switching for you - the real question is whether the grounds are shared. I don’t have one. I do have a Foz and it works well for what it does - but I am working with tube amps already so I can’t say what level of bloom it could impart to your system. The affect of the soundstage is impressive, though done through signal manipulation, and is best reserved to fix room boundary issues when the only other option is getting a new house. I currently have two sets of speaker wires at the fronts and the rears so I could swap between tube amps and av SS amps, but to be honest I don’t usually do it. Another way to look at this is to consider that both tubes and transistors get hot - one is replaceable and the other is not. Avoid exotic / expensive power tubes and focus on rolling the input tubes. I’ve gotten years out of tubes running them for 4 hours a day average. My OCD usually kicks in and I choose to replace them before they fail.
A little tube magic?
I’m looking for some ideas and impressions. I’d really like to run tubes for amplification, but my system pulls double duty for music and tv. It is on probably about 8 hours a day for one or the other. This just seems like to much to me for running tubes. I’m looking for a way to be able to keep my solid state setup but add tubes in a manner I can switch them in and out. I have couple of ideas but I am aware neither is very ideal.
First I thought I could add a tube preamp or maybe even buffer in the tape loop of my McIntosh C46. I know this will add more complexity for the signal to pas through. I’m not sure if I can expect gains that will be better that what I lose by adding extra cables and components.
My second idea would be to add a tube power amp on some sort of switch, something similar the the Shiit SYS. Which is basically a passive preamp with two inputs and a potentiometer. I’ve read that can use it backwards kind of and have the output be the input and run the two inputs to two different amps and then switch between the two. I would think I’d need two sets of speaker cables to make this work, and switch them back and forth as needed. I’m not really fond of either idea and hope there may be a solution I’m unaware of. I really just want tubes for music and ss for tv if it’s possible.
A third option would be to get a tube dac for music listening, but I’m unsure if I’ll be able to get the amount of tube sound I’m after. I guess I could see it as part of the solution along with tubes in the pre or power amp as well.
Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated.
First I thought I could add a tube preamp or maybe even buffer in the tape loop of my McIntosh C46. I know this will add more complexity for the signal to pas through. I’m not sure if I can expect gains that will be better that what I lose by adding extra cables and components.
My second idea would be to add a tube power amp on some sort of switch, something similar the the Shiit SYS. Which is basically a passive preamp with two inputs and a potentiometer. I’ve read that can use it backwards kind of and have the output be the input and run the two inputs to two different amps and then switch between the two. I would think I’d need two sets of speaker cables to make this work, and switch them back and forth as needed. I’m not really fond of either idea and hope there may be a solution I’m unaware of. I really just want tubes for music and ss for tv if it’s possible.
A third option would be to get a tube dac for music listening, but I’m unsure if I’ll be able to get the amount of tube sound I’m after. I guess I could see it as part of the solution along with tubes in the pre or power amp as well.
Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated.