A used Cayin is the way to go. The 50 or the 88 would a an ideal start with tubes. Pricing should be under $1000. Great sound, great value. Yes, you will need a phono stage, but you might be able to use your existing one and just pick up the output from the tape loop.
new amp choices
Hi everyone... I'm trying to start setting up a new listening system, and I'm hoping that I can get some help from the people around here since I'm a little lost in all the options available.
A little background on the music I listen to... it's mostly rock/metal but I do have quite a few jazz/blues albums that I enjoy listening to. I have a turntable (technics 1200) and also have all my CDs ripped to FLAC and stream them using a squeezebox.
After looking around at all the options out there I noticed that most amps are really expensive, and since I'd like something with tubes I initially thought I'd start out with something small. So I was looking at the Cary xciter integrated and the matching DAC, and pair it with a set of bookshelf speakers. I was interested in this setup mostly because later when I want to upgrade I can just move it to the bedroom/office and don't need to worry about selling it.
Then after looking around some more, I saw that there's other more powerful amps that I could get that aren't terribly expensive. Some of the ones I saw were the SixPacs which seem like they would make up a solid tube power amp that I most likely won't need to upgrade in the near future. The other option was getting a tube integrated like the Cary 120S or something from Rogue Audio (either the Cronus or the Tempest II).
So out of all these options what do you guys think makes most sense? Just spend some money upfront on a good power amp that I could use as a base for my sound for a long time, and just add preamps/DACs as needed?
Thanks for your help.
A little background on the music I listen to... it's mostly rock/metal but I do have quite a few jazz/blues albums that I enjoy listening to. I have a turntable (technics 1200) and also have all my CDs ripped to FLAC and stream them using a squeezebox.
After looking around at all the options out there I noticed that most amps are really expensive, and since I'd like something with tubes I initially thought I'd start out with something small. So I was looking at the Cary xciter integrated and the matching DAC, and pair it with a set of bookshelf speakers. I was interested in this setup mostly because later when I want to upgrade I can just move it to the bedroom/office and don't need to worry about selling it.
Then after looking around some more, I saw that there's other more powerful amps that I could get that aren't terribly expensive. Some of the ones I saw were the SixPacs which seem like they would make up a solid tube power amp that I most likely won't need to upgrade in the near future. The other option was getting a tube integrated like the Cary 120S or something from Rogue Audio (either the Cronus or the Tempest II).
So out of all these options what do you guys think makes most sense? Just spend some money upfront on a good power amp that I could use as a base for my sound for a long time, and just add preamps/DACs as needed?
Thanks for your help.
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