https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisb617b-primaluna-evo-400-integrated-amplifier-tube
I would dip into this Integrated PL Evo 400 amp. Has the bandwidth and power not to mention you can tube roll up to your hearts content. Also can run triode mode so you can have the intimate sound if you want. Very versatile and made well.
I agree with the East17 as well. I personally am running the Dialogue Premium (only 4 Power Tubes) and had Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grands (90db @ 4ohms) and pretty much had more than enough bandwidth and power to run them. Room is an open 12’x18’. It was quite loud even in triode mode and EL34 Tubes.
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I’ll throw a curve ball into this discussion…within the context of your system, I’d keep your SS Parasound amp, ditch the Benchmark preamp and get a nice tube linestage. Having tried solid state preamps with tube amp and tube preamps with solid state amps, the latter is a better configuration. Gives you the magic of tubes without sacrificing the drive your SS amp provides for your speakers. This’ll be especially true with the benchmark DAC that can benefit from some of the tube goodness. As it currently stands, you’re feeding a very clean measuring but not necessarily musically engaging signal into your amp. Just something to think about.
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Purchased my first tube amp from Upscale Audio after talking to the owner. Of course it was a Primaluna. The owner said to me I want you to mark this date of purchase and in five years you will still be listening to it.
let me say, it has been long over 5 years and I refuse to sell it or trade it for something else. The sound is just unique.
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What kinds of music do you listen to? Hoe loud do you normally listen? How far are you from your speakers? With 90 dbs speakers will play with any amount of watts, but they won’t sing until you have at least 50-75. My speakers are 90 dbs sensitivity also and 40 watt tube mono blocks drove them, but the didn’t sing until I put a powered subwoofer in and the amps didn’t have to drive the lower notes.
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I own MA Silver 300s, and have toyed with tube amps (MC 240, ARC Dual 52b) driven with my Stage 3 rebuilt APT preamp. I found that both those amps worked well,with the nod going to the Dual 52b. Of the amps you listed, I would favor the Jadis. I have heard driving Wilson Sophia 2s, and was very impressed. 300b amps, yeah, retube costs plus lower power, not. The Cary's are interesting but Im not sure how happy they would be with a lower impedance speaker. Just something to check if you get serious about them. Keep us informed as you move forward!
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If you want "blunt, I’d pass on all of the tube amps on your list, and ditch the Benchmark DAC, I had one and could not stand it. One of the most un-engaging dacs I’ve owned.
As for your speakers, and this graph, (and I’m a 100wpc mono tube amp owner myself) I’d be looking for a nice velvety 200wpc mosfet solid state amplifier. I think you’ll be much happier and your speakers deserve the right matching amp imo. 3.5-4.0 ohms is just getting too far down there for most tube amps. The amps I’m using right now would do it, and so would KT Monos yet I’d throttle expectations after seeing this graph and considering what tube amps you might need.
Worth checking the used market for nice SS mosfet amps (too) if interested.
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I would avoid any amp limited to various "contemporary" powers tubes which may not be available in the near future.
This would include all the KT tubes starting @ KT90 and going upwards.
Same goes for anything using 6H30 small signal tubes.
DeKay
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I briefly owned Quicksilver Mid Mono's, but felt I needed more power, so I was able to trade up to the KT Mono's with KT 150's (100 wpc). I agree with @soix that the amps you are considering are likely not a good match for your speakers. I'd be shooting for something in the 75 to 125 wpc range. McIntosh MC275, offerings from Rogue, Quicksilver would be a good place to look. US Audiomart has a good selection.
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@marshinski15 I believe you have decided on the right course. I don't think any of your amp choices would have been a suitable match.
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I also can recommend KT100 after owning several QS products. I currently have Mid Monos. They have been super reliable. 10 years old and have been trouble free. Many , many hours on them and only a few tubes over the years.
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Looks like I will put this on the back burner till I upgrade my speakers. Thanks to everyone of you. You always pull through for me.
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The Jadis looks like a good choice and one thing to keep in mind when looking at a pushpull 300B amp is the massive retubing costs!
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+3 Quicksilver KT Mono amps!
Mike
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Marshinski15,
Just realized your speakers are 90db (87db), not your intended listening levels...my bad. I would still go for something with more grunt. Btw, the new KT Monos Mike Sanders offers would be a safer buy than used V4s, Mono 90s, or Silver 60s. Those amps on Audiomart are great amps but are getting a bit long in the tooth, and the price for those V4s is high!
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I agree with Quicksilver, and I would go for the 100W KT Mono amps, not the Mid-Mono. 90dB is loud, and the Mid Monos would squash dynamics at those levels. 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. Just my 2Cents worth.
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I am very interested to see how this turns out.
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@soix +1
@atmasphere +1
I'm using a pair of Atma-Sphere MA-1's to drive a pair 8 ohm 87 db efficient Wilson's with great results, but I'm also using subs to drive every thing from 177 Hz on down. If I wasn't using subs I would want to find the highest impedance speaker that sounded good to me that I could to use with a tube amp.
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I think the Jadis and Cary would likely be good choices. I agree, that with Benchmark stuff a really warm amp will probably greatly enhance the sound.
But a question on your setup. That is a huge triangle you have for listening. Do you get solid center image and homogeneous sound stage between the speakers? Have you tried an 8’ to 9’ triangle?
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@marshinski15 , @soix has given you excellent advice. Four Ohm speakers are usually not the best way to be introduced to a tube amplifier. If it has an output transformer (and most do, but not all) you can lose as much as an octave of bandwidth in the bass department. Distortion will be higher too, and even though the output transformer might have a 4 Ohm tap, it will be less efficient so you'll have less power (although that will only be a few Watts at most). In addition your speaker cables become more critical.
If your speakers were 8 Ohms I would say any of the amps you listed would be fine.
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I have had several different tube amps over the years. 40 and 50 watt EL34 and 6l6 amps. They drove speakers around 90 dB sens in a room about 17 X 15
My latest amp is a 40 watt Solid State amp and it can drive 86 dB sens speakers to pretty decent volumes cleanly in roughly the same size room.
That said I would avoid low powered SET amps with those speakers and look at something 40 or 50 watts with tubes that are readily available is what I would suggest
I have a 300b and it sounds beautiful but only with my Forte. It just doesn’t have the power to play low to moderately low sensitivity speakers
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Looking at the Stereophile measurements you should take care in choosing a tube amp as the Gold 300s look like a bit of a harder load than one might initially expect. Here’s an excerpt from John Atkinson’s measurements section…
Although Monitor Audio specifies the Gold 300's sensitivity as 90dB/W/m, my estimate was almost 3dB lower, at 87.3dB(B)/2.83V/m, perhaps due to the fact that the Gold 300's impedance is specified as 4 ohms. (An input of 2.83V is equivalent to 2W into 4 ohms.) The impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) does stay close to 4 ohms from the upper bass through to the mid-treble, with minimum values of 3.7 ohms at 117Hz and 3.57 ohms at 1kHz. There is a current-hungry combination of 5 ohms and –39° electrical phase angle (dotted trace) at 77Hz, and the phase angle exceeds +40° above 10kHz, presumably due to the inductance of the MPD tweeter's drive system. The Monitor Audio needs to be partnered with an amplifier that is comfortable driving low impedances.
A “modest tube amp” might not get the job done here, so make sure to do your homework before fully committing. In this case you might consider going with a tubed preamp rather than an amp to get some of that tube goodness. Don’t mean to be a bummer here but thought I’d share this info in case you weren’t already aware.
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