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Headphone amp as pre amp

Hej

I'm considering to buy a tube pre amp and a tube power amp. Then I realized that my headphone amp, Feliks Audio Elise, has line out and should work as a pre amp. But what are the draw backs compared buying a pre amp?
http://feliksaudio.pl/en/products.php

Any suggestions of tube power amp, with EL84 or EL34 tubes. It has to be a Push-Pull as my speakers ar at 89dB sensibility. And if you have suggestions of a pre amp too I would be grateful.
Budget is aprox $4500 for both.

simna
13 responses Add your response
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
The Elise will work fine as a line stage preamp. 
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
A nicely restored Dynaco ST35 would be a good choice. Push-Pull 6BQ5's/EL84's for about 15 wpc make it a lot more practical than a slngle-end tube amp. And it has excellent output transformers!
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
The same would apply to the Dynaco ST70. Push-Pull EL34's for about 35 wpc make it even more useful! Plus there are newly-manufactured ones with improved circuitry now available! See TAS for a review!
simna OP
165 posts
 
The Dynaco ST70 I have heard of. Problem is, the ones that look good are from US and they don't want to ship to Sweden.
Is there one particiular ST70 to look for or stay away from?
The ST35 is also interesting because I think 15w will be enough since I listening on low volumes.
But the problem is to find one in good shape that I can get shipped to Sweden.
simna OP
165 posts
 
What about these Dynaco Latino ST-70? Any good compared to the the real Dynaco ST-70 Series 3?
atagulkula
14 posts
 
I use my Benchmark headphone amp as a pre and use clean out to my Mac 275 tube amp with excellent results 
ndevamp
55 posts
 
Using a headphone amp as a line preamp should present no problems and could make the circuit work better anyway. Since the load impedance of the headphone is removed for use as a line stage it’s circuit should then work with lower distortion.
For poweramps, try the classic Music Reference RM-10. It’s a powerful little push pull EL84 poweramp offering around 35w, that should drive 89dB speakers to reasonable levels.
avanti1960
1,476 posts
 
It can work well but is one line input sufficient?  

I am currently using a rogue audio RH-5 headphone amp / linestage preamp even though I have no interest in headphones.  It sounds amazing and has (4) inputs.  
mesch
3,481 posts
 
The Felixaudio headphone amp sure looks like a fine product. Have no experience with it. Only drawback I can see is that it only has a single input. On the web site you provided I did not find what the output impedance was, which would help in matching it to a amplifier. I would give it a try and purchase an amplifier. 
sckeaton's avatar
sckeaton
1 posts
 
The Bob Latino amps are excellent.
simna OP
165 posts
 
I send Feliks Audio a mail and this is their answer: "Yes it can work as a very good pre-amp, without any draw backs. It’s going to add the tube signature of Elise to any signal that you pass through it."

And yes, the drawback is just one line in.

The Music Reference RM-10 looks nice, but will 35w not be a little to hard on the EL84 tubes?

About ST-70 Bob Latino; Anyone know why keeping the input at the front? Nostalgia? It's just stupid. 


sebrof's avatar
sebrof
835 posts
 
About ST-70 Bob Latino; Anyone know why keeping the input at the front? Nostalgia? It’s just stupid.
To keep the AC Power input and the signal input separate to avoid noise on the signal line. My Quicksilver monoblocks are the same, as are many others.
ndevamp
55 posts
 
The RM-10 was designed by Roger Modjeski, not your average engineer. He gets higher power out of the EL84 by using higher voltage and less current through the tube. It’s proven to be very reliable and the amp has a good following. I owned one for many years and can vouch for its sweet sound and reliability, and it’s far more powerful than it looks! It’s also a simple circuit, hard wired for the best sound.
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