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Looking for 50-100 watts of Tube Power (give or take) for my JBL 4349s

I’ve been looking at new and used 50-100 wpc power amps in the $5000 range to drive my JBL 4349s. I don’t have any experience in this price or power bracket when it comes to tubes, and could use some reccomendations.

Here are the amps I’ve been researching (the usual suspects I assume):

Rogue Stereo 100

Cary CAD-120s Mk2

Audio Research Reference 150SE

Audio Research VT80SE

Carver Crimson 275

Various vintage Corad Johnson amps

I’d love to hear why people would choose one of the amps from this list, or what else I should consider that isn’t on the list. I don’t have a preamp yet but will probably try a Benchmark la4 first.

For context, my main amp right now is a Torii Jr, but I also use the 4349s with a Muzishare X7 and a Denon PMA-1700NE. I love the Torii Jr and will continue to use it, but would occasionally like more power. The Muzishare is fine, but I want something of better quality.

My musical tastes are all over the place: rock, pop, jazz, world, electronic, classical. I listen to a lot of symphonic/orchestral music and would like more power to handle the dynamics, but prefer the soundstaging of tubes.

Thanks in advance for the recommendations!

 

 

rischa
decooney
1,973 posts
 

@pdreher sounds like fun. My buddy had a pair of the MC-30s refreshed and ran them for many years.  Pretty neat amps.  In my larger QS amps, I found the KT150s need the right amount of plate voltage, bias,  and transformers to run their best. Going back and forth I found I actually prefer the KT120s in my QS mono amps,, and with the right input tubes and [higher-end] caps, and proper biasing - they truly sound like different amplifiers.

I'm an old EL34 fan from my Cary days, and similar amps.  From the get-go I was trying to get the QS to sound closer to those amps and this combination has me much closer to more of a hybrid golden era sound, yet there seems to be no loss of detail as long as I'm running my Cary SLP-98 tube preamp with the right 6SN7 tubes in it.  This combo of preamp and amps really sounds good, super happy with it.  Good luck with yours, enjoy!  :)  

pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,208 posts
 

@decooney Couldn't agree more with running 6SN7 based preamps from Cary, deHavilland and Supratek.  

rischa OP
64 posts
 

@atmasphere, thanks, I will take a look closer at Class D options. I heard your monoblocks at Axpona last year and thought they sounded great.

tmhaudio
122 posts
 

@rischa As a US distributor of solid state amps, we have a CANOR "Virtus I2" KT88 Class-A demo available that may interest you.

40w/ch Ultralinear

20w/ch Triode

Shipped direct from Canor July,2023 and we’ll include NOS tube upgrades

More info here: https://www.tmhaudio.com/DEMOS.html

New UK "HiFiNews" review w/stock Russian EH tubes: 

 

 

rischa OP
64 posts
 

@pdreher, I’m a bit intimidated by the VAC gear for the reasons you mention. The QS KT Monos are very tempting. I actually quite like the aesthetics -- they look all business. And it’s surprising how affordable they are. There’s a pair on US Audio Mart for $2800, which seems like a steal for so much amp.

A friend of mine runs a pair of Altec Lancings with McIntosh MC60 monoblocks. I really enjoy this system. Lots of used MC275s in my price range, too. I will give this some thought.

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