Integrated Tube Around $1000

Wes

I'm curious about your Totem experience. Was the problem that you were not getting enough volume with 30watts? Did you still get a full range of sounds?

Scottz

Could you explain a bit more about your comments re. not all watts being equal?

thanks

matthew

Rich

and all. Glad to hear that the Prima Luna can drive 87-88db speakers. I will get my hands on a 30 watt amp and see what happens with the totems. I'm hoping to also try a Jolida 502.

Arthur

thanks for the suggestion about the Antique Sound Lab, I hadn't thought of going that route. I'll look into that idea further.

anyone driving Totem Model Ones with only 30 watts?

matthew

So it sounds like the Jolida 302 or 502 as well as the Prima Luna are the leading contenders. Has anyone been able to compare the Jolida vs. the Prima Luna?

According to the Totem web site, they suggest that 15 watts is a bare minimum for the Totem's and the Dynaudio site says that 25 watts is needed for the A72's. In time I plan to replace the Danes and go to a more sensitive floorstander. But I do plan to keep the Totem's. If they will work with the integrated Tube, than that just gives me more flexibility with the system. They are great with my Classe 100 mono blocks, but that's 200Watts of solid state. I don't listen to music loud, I found that with the mono blocks I got full sound out of the speakers at low volume. I'm hoping for something similar with tubes. But maybe 30 watts isn't enough, although it might be. Is there a floor where you can't go wrong? 40watts? 50watts? 60watts?

thanks

matthew

Well I have a Jolida 202 home for a test run. After the kids are in bed it will get warmed up and ready to go. It's a stock model.

Wes I suspect that you are right about the Chinese makes being of lower quality than American or European. And in time I hope to make the step up to a better amp. And on a deeper level it's a good idea to support local manufacturers. I do have Canadian made amps, as well as my CD player, and I have a set of Canadian made speakers. (I live in Ontario). I guess I'm looking at Chinese makes because they are cheaper and apparently of decent quality.

I'm looking forward to enjoying tubes.

all the best

matthew

Wes

thanks for your comments, it sounds like you gave the Totems a good work out, trying them at 30watts. My classe 100 mono blocks are also 200watts per channel at 4ohms, so I get a good sense of what you are talking about. I may very well leave the Totem's with my solid state set-up and concentrate my floorstanders around the tubes. I quite enjoyed a Triangle Antal that I auditioned recently, and they are at 91db so I suspect that a 30-50watt integrated would have no trouble at all. But that's a ways off at the moment.

I'm going to try out a Jolida this week-end. And see how that works out. I suspect that the modded versions bring up the quality a fair bit and might get it closer to the Prima Luna, but I don't think I can get my hands on a Modded Jolida in my area. Are there specific mods that improve the Jolida's?

thanks

matthew

Rich

I didn't mean that the Chinese work is bad, just that it could be of lower quality. Only a hunch though, I don't know for certain. But that being said I think it is good value for the money and worth purchasing. You are right about the Adcom and my Tube Buffer. And I will almost certainly buy Chinese work.

Anyways, back to the Jolida. Things went pretty well. The match was better with the Dynaudios. The tubes added a warm feel to their detailed sound. It was only one night so far but I was suitably impressed. The mids were much better, and the rest was equal to my solid state set-up.

The Totems didn't work out quite as well but the match was decent. The mids were the strong point but the bass wasn't as poor as I thought it would be. It was the high frequencies on instruments such as trumpet that were sub-par. But it was something I can live but I will probably dedicate the Totems to my Solid State and have the floorstanders go Tube.

With the Totems I had the gain up to 3/4 and that meant the sound was a bit loud for me. Before that it sounded like I wasn't getting the full features of my monitors. But with the Dynaudios the gain was just below the half way mark and they were performing well without making me want to sit further back.

I ended up staying up to the wee hours and having a great time. I'm looking forward to making a purchase soon. Although I haven't heard one yet, I'm leaning towards the Prima Luna due to the positive reviews from purchasers and reviewers but I think I can also do well with a modified Jolida.

matthew