Depending too your budget and type of musicyulike and speakers
Best Tube Amp for High Sensitivity Speakers: 45, PX25, or 300B?
I am looking to change / upgrade my tube amp. I have a good, all-purpose Primaluna EVO 400. It employs the EL34's and has a nice sound, especially in the ultralinear mode. Other components: streaming from Innuos Zenith MKIII to Lampizator Atlantic DAC. Everything playing through Daedalus floorstanding speakers with a 96-97dB sensitivity. Currently, my office / listening room is on the small side: 12'L x 16'W x 8' H, but I'm building a new listening room on our farm where I will later upgrade some components to fit a larger room. Now, here are the tube amp options I am looking at:
Audion Silver Night PX25 8 Watts. Very popular among some, touting a slightly more balanced, dynamic sound over the 300B.
Swissonor 45 SE or Tektron TK One 2A3 / 45 i The 45 is the low wattage (2.5W) but sweet tone alternative. Considered by many to be one of the most musical out there. Of course, its low power makes it more restrictive, only efficient with high-sensitivity speakers and in more small-to-moderately-sized rooms. It might be great in my current office but would have to work harder in a larger one later.
300B Integrated Amp, Make / Model not yet determined. 8-10 watts. Of course, the 300B is making a big comeback and has wonderful characteristics, especially in the midrange and especially with certain genres of music such as acoustic, vocals, jazz, etc. I heard one opinion from someone with a history of work in sound production, "The 300B is great if you just want to listen to a female vocalist with a guitar." One take on it.
Adherents of the PX25 and 45 tend to regard the 300B as a nice-but-limited cousin. I honestly have no experience with any of these three tubes. I moved from SS to tube with the PrimaLuna, a well-built amp that I have increasingly felt carries some limitations that other tubes--more focused specifically on higher sensitivity speakers--would open up the sound in the lower frequencies and some tone qualities all around.
Any opinions would be welcome.
Showing 3 responses by audioman58
Try something different like the 211 tube ,or 845 More then enough power and sound very nice https://caryaudio.com/products/cad-805rs/ a dedicated line yes awg 10 if possible , and as I did 4 wire one a common ground the other ground a isolated ground in its separate path connected to its own grid to ground more monies but worth it you don’t need to isolate the digital after this . buy a very good Ethernet switch , depending on your budget the SW8 only $600 or top of the line innuos $3700. Depending on your dac and quality of your audio system what you can afford , the AC outlets buy quality Gold over Copper Furutech or another name brand ,even Pangea $100 AC outlet very good . And on router for sure a 12v minimum 4 amp Linear Power Supply , any gsrbage wall warts need to go $5 junk noise makers , little green computer sells for $299 and never use stock power cords ,at minimum on the LPS power supply a Pangea Sig MK2 for example I even put a synergistic purple fuse in the LPS as well as the upgraded Ethernet switch , each one small but important improvements , and Ethernet cables cannot be low end or your streaming will suffer, this too applies to the USB cable. Everything counts , I am still working on upgrades last your dac , to me as the source how much can you spend $$. Myself semi retired have to save for more expensive items , the T+A 200 dac I still have a few months to go to save , is imo and many others dacs we have compared it to directly in our multi state audio get together for its $7200 price a true bargain it beats anything under $15 k and more and has HQ player built into the platform to give you the ability to find tune this to your audio system ,to make it better still. |
Look up Radu Tarta one of the best tube designers in all North America specializing is SET 300 B amplifiers using Lundahl transformers and chokes as well as many custom super high quality parts ,built to last a lifetime and a Huge cut above his prices are actually less then name brands with far superior build quality .he has built me both Amplifiers and preamps , beung in a multi state audio get together ,you can get as custom as you want Power coated front and top plate with even pinstriping. If you want That from front panel express , not cheap but built to whstever you want and uses the finest Khozmo volume attenuator and input digital read out A+ quality roughly $5k on up and Tubes as much as you want to spend , Western Electric 300b ,Taks from Japan KR , as I mentioned before your budget dictates the options ,A Giant step up think Bentley Quality for decent name brand priced ,not China !! |