Integrated tube amp has no bass Cayin A50T

Not too many tube amps have bass. Selling this amp will make much more sense than sending it back. It's popular and should sell over ebay or here.

It is the nature of the beast, its a 35 wpc tube amp in push pull and 16 wpc in triode. One thing you can do is check and be sure you are not in triode if you want to maximize bass.

Energy's recommended power for the speaker is 30-120wpc with an 88db sensitivity, so I'm guessing they are probably better suited for a solid state amp, or a much more powerful tube amp. As Mechans stated, make sure you do not use triode mode.

Try changing the phase. Flip one speaker cable around, go from black to red and red over to black. See what happens.

Try a more sensitive pair of speakers. 93db or better would be a much better match for that amp.

I'm, not familiar with your speakers so take this for what it's worth, but EL34 tubes are more famous for a great mid range than extended highs or bass. This may not be the integrated amp for you and/or your speakers, or any speakers, if you want a lot of bass.

Out of curiosity do I assume correctly that prior to getting this amp you were driving these speakers with a solid state unit. Or are these speakers new to you as well. I only ask that because small speakers themselves are more often than not lacking in bass response. Perhaps it is a combo of a EL34 tube based amp and small speakers. FWIW.

"Not too many tube amps have bass"…please. There are tons of tube amps that have awesome bass. Nicdob, you have a great little amp that is very capable of bass, and I would NOT sell it. Exhaust other options first.

I own the same amp and it successfully works with Gradient Revolution speakers ( 85 dB )!I use standard Shuguang EL34s and on 'special' occasions the Svetlanas (SED), wonderful tubes.
Do not sell it quickly, the amp is excellent value.

I have that amp into B&W 685's and they have pretty good bass. I would not say they are bass shy at all.

Must be those speakers or phase or the wrong ohm taps or something but the amp (yes, low power and speakers not extremely effecient...)has bass.

Ohhh....did you bias the tubes???

I had that amp and lack of bass was not a problem with my Devore 9s. If I recall, you can run the amp triode or pentode, the pentode setting has more power and better bass control.

Nicdob

Talk to us………..we are here to help…….u got bass??????

I have the cayin A-50T and it has good bass. A value for money amp.

if your speakers are out of phase- no bass. that is pos to neg and neg to pos- reversed phasing. also, inefficient speakers are not recommended for a modest powered tube amp. back in the day a lot of the solid state gear put out by pioneer and Marantz fell in the 25 to 35 wpc range with a 45wpc amp/receiver considered pretty powerful. Those sounded so pleasant, but speakers then were different too. today some speakers are really inefficient requiring a lot of power just do drive them. Why? Beats me. I sell Jolida gear and vintage Klipsch speakers, and vintage Advents. This amp should sound great with some Klipsch reference speakers. Some speakers are just best with high powered SS amps. Paradigm, PSB speakers, Klipsch. There are some good buys on vintage Klipsch. Set the bias on the amp, and check reset tubes. If problem persists, take it to a shop.

Hi All,

Thank you for all the responses and sorry about the 2 year delay in reply!

I am still with my amp, despite my bass complaints - as I just love the way it sounds otherwise. But yes, I'm still lacking bass.

I have tried swapping over the cables of one speaker to test the phase, I lost more bass - so I guess I had that right :)

For the Triode/Ultralinear I'm not clear when it is in each mode - is the indicator light red when in ultralinear? If so this makes sense as I hear a slight improvement.

So, it sounds like I need to address my speakers? Will impedance make a difference, or should I just focus on sensitivity?

Thanks again!

Nick

Both , high stable impedance without major fluctuations , try to not go below 6 ohms .
An efficiency at least in the low 90's .

Good luck

Nicdob hi.

Can't believe nobody has asked this yet.

But have you tried the 4ohm speaker tap on the amp?? You will loose half the wattage, but what's there may drive the bass much better. Triode mode/4ohm tap is it's lowest output impedance, which may fix the bass problem, but leave you short on big loudness levels.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/cayin-50t-integrated-amplifier-measurements#fMrbLoy4HGiKxcxV.97

As if these speakers dip down to 4ohm in the bass and have a heavy negative phase angle as well this will kill the bass of the amp.

Cheers George