Going Tubing


Greetings!

I would like to introduce some tubes into my two channel set up.

I currently have a solid-state preamp and a solid-state power amp. (And a separate, hybrid tube phono stage.)

I am wondering, conceptually, staying with separates, if it would be better to switch the preamp to a tube preamp, or if it’s better to change the power ramp to a tube power amp. With “better” in this case I mean would have bigger impact on, for a lack of a better description, “tube sound.”

(I realize there are other considerations, such as having enough power to drive my speakers, but here I’m talking about conceptually, which part of these two audio chain components would have the most impact on the sound if switching one of them from ss to tube.)

128x128bimmerlover

Showing 2 responses by soix

Here is an excerpt from John Atkinson’s Measurements section for your speakers…


“The One.R’s impedance is specified as being "compatible with 8 ohms." The solid trace in fig.1 reveals that the impedance magnitude ranges between 3 and 6 ohms for much of the audioband, with a minimum value of 3.1 ohms between 290Hz and 390Hz. Like the original One, the One.R’s use of a passive high-pass filter with a low corner frequency means that the electrical phase angle becomes increasingly capacitive below that frequency. Although the impedance magnitude rapidly increases below 100Hz, mitigating the effect of that phase angle, there is still a combination of 4 ohms and –48° at 100Hz, which will require a good 4 ohm–rated amplifier to drive the speaker to acceptably high levels.”

This doesn’t scream tube friendly to me and almost certainly not for a lower-powered tube amp as it will easily be forced into operating out of its comfort zone. Makes a lotta sense to just start with a tube preamp and then decide if you wanna spend $$$ on a higher powered tube amp. Hope this helps, and best of luck.

Here’s a nice Linear Tube Audio MZ2 with their linear power supply upgrade that’s an excellent preamp (read the reviews) and that’s well within your budget, and as a bonus it’s also an outstanding headphone amplifier if you swing that way or might like to in the future.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650086955-linear-tube-audio-mz2-headphonepreampintegrated-amp-no-fee-for-paypal-today-only/images/5003705/

Best of luck.