Entry level tube amp to try


Sometime this spring I'll be upgrading, and I would like to hear what the "tube" sound is like. I currently have a rotel rb1080/krell krc-3 pre combo which I'm somewhat happy with, but I would like a fuller sound with more body.
I was thinking of getting an anthem amp-1 to try,just to get a feeling of what tubes sound like,but would like some input if this would give me a fair idea of the different type sound you get from tubes. Then when I upgrade, I'll no whether I might want to go tube or s.s.
I don't want to go demo anything at a retail store,because I'll probably buy here. thanks for any help
josdel2

Showing 3 responses by josdel2

I guess I should of known it wouldn't be that easy. I'm new to this,and just thought I could try an inexpensive amp to see if that's the direction to go.( then resell it and get a better one). What I have now I got at a retail store last Feb.BEFORE I found this site,(exept for the speakers which I've had since '85.) The rest of the system is a rotel 991 cdp, and A/D/S L1590 speakers( from the Mike Kelly era, with 2 10" woofers, silk dome mids & highs, ). For cables, H-T truthlink from cdp, van den hul "the second " to the amp, and MIT T-2 speaker cables.I'm pretty happy with the sound, but it needs more body, the cables helped, as did speaker position and I added spikes, but I was going to try an inexpensive amp to try, just to see if that is what I should change first.I want to move up to that next level of sound, and realize it will have to be a little at a time, budget wise so I really appreciate your input,if you think that it would be a waste to try an amp just to see the difference, I'll trust your experienced opinions. If you all think that a real good tube amp is what I need I'll try one of the above, but I would hate to spend $2-3000 on an amp,and find I should have done speakers first. Maybe I just need a sub, the room is big (22 x 28 x 10). thanks for your help, sorry for the long post.
there is a set of Yakov Aronov mono,s for sale,and some c-j 11a's, If I were try one of these, would it be fair to them to mix with my s.s. krell pre?
I might as well join the fun and start buying and selling things to try. But if it is the speakers I should switch first I'm doomed, because it seems like that would be a big hassle, and something best done via local sales.
Either way, I've got the bug to do something now, before golf season arrives.
Listener57 your right, it seem whatever you would like to spend always goes up, but starting from the first few responses, it seemed like a waste what I wanted to do. I believe it was your response " Since tube amps do not all sound alike it is not so easy to extrapolate from the fine trial stage Anthem to your eventual tube "upgrade." " made a lot of sense to me. Now if I can control my urge to get something quick, there are soo many to choose from, but it makes more sense to stop looking for quick fixes and move forward with a little bit of a goal.I've made too many quick decisions in the past. Would it be wise to start an other thread looking for the sonic characters of different amps?