I I would look into vfets. Yamaha B1 or B2. And there is some Sony gear out there as well. It's all vintage, but easily refurbished and the sound is alot like tubes. The closest you can get to tubes with SS.
I'm going to buy my first tube amp. I need honest blunt opinions
Recommendations please. I am thinking of dipping my toes in the tube amp water. For the longest time I have been tempted to buy a modest tube amp to run my Monitor Gold 300’s at 90db.
I’ve been toying around, researching the different characteristics of SET, class A, class AB, B Ultralinear tube amps for months. It’s a bit much. As far as the reviewers go, they are too vague. They are afraid to be upfront honest.
Sources are a Parasound JC 3+, a Innous ZENith Mk3, and a Oppo going to a Benchmark DAC, then all go to a Benchmark LA 4 preamp that will feed the new amp.
My room is 16 x16. The speakers have a 12-foot spread. I sit 14 feet back, so it’s not that big of a room.
I have narrowed it down to four candidates.
A used Canary Audio M90 300B Tube Amp at 24RMS,300B push-pull stereo triode Class A $4,000
A used Jadis Orchestra Black, 40 RMS, Class B $4,000
A 16-year-old, Used Cary Audio Six Pac Monoblock’s, 50 triode watts A/AB $2,000
A new Dynaco by WILL VINCENT 35RMS Ultralinear $2,300
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+1 @decooney Your speakers needs a good SS amplifier. Some may not agree, but when your impedance drops below 4 ohms, it is a problem for tube amps to drive it. Even though specified sensitivity is 90dB, looks like actual sensitivity is close to 87dB. Your speakers have sensitivity and impedance characteristics similar to Thiel speakers except for the phase angle.
You should try Audio Research 100.2 amp. There are several used ones available in ebay, Audiogon, TRM, etc. This amp will give tube flavor you are looking for, except this is a SS amp. Very musical and highly recommended. And there are many other options as well. |
"I suggest staying away from the Cary amps because getting tubes for these babies requires big $$$, plus they run hot, plus 50W I feel is not sufficient for your purposes and speakers." Not sure where bojack is coming from regarding his comments on the Cary Six Pacs. I own a pair of these mono blocks and can assure you they do not run hot. Highest temp i've measured on the transformers was around 145 deg F. Yes you need 12 output tubes but the EL34 tubes are among the easiest to find and least expensive output tubes you can buy. Also, 50W of push pull triode power is more than enough to power most speakers unless you want to fill a large room at head banging levels. |
I’m glad you posted this to help the OP more. Some people are not looking at the graph above or translating to (needs FLAT response) as they keep talking about speaker sensitivity instead of helpful flat impedance and load - with TUBE amps. What makes a speaker Tube Amp friendly? Sure any of these tube amps will produce sound, BUT, how does it function, and does it sound good? I came across this old thread, many threads out there like this to understand more.
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If a tube amp’s output transformers are spec’ed for 4-ohm loads, it can do just fine as long as the speaker’s impedance doesn’t dwell much below that for extended periods. I asked this very question to Aric at Aric Audio before I ordered one of his 60w push-pull amps for my Perlisten S7t, which has a nominal 4 but dips below 3 at some points in the bass. He assured me no problem and he was right. The amp sounds wonderful and has absolutely no issues driving the speakers. I also have a couple of high-quality Class A SS amps that put 200+ watts into 4 ohms. I prefer the Aric amp with the Perlistens. |
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