Newbie Can't Decide Which Tube Amp


Just had a Bottlehead tech build me a BeePre preamp and an MM phono. My speakers are Sonus Faber Concertos Homage (rated at 87dB sensitivity) and my budget is $4K- give or take. I am not much of a bass person. Mostly classical, appreciate the Blues, Latin, and occasional classic rock. The tech is adamant that I look for a used EAR 534.

I appreciate your feedback in advance.
ckenr

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

@ckenrIf   If you really want to use a tube amplifier I would consider different speakers unless your room is very small. 87dB is low efficiency and you'll need about 240-400 watts in most rooms to get realistic levels with any musical genre. There are not many tube amps that make this power and sound like music at the same time! Bandwidth is hard to achieve due to limitations in the output transformer (BTW there are tube amps that don't use an output transformer).


To give you some idea of how important this is, consider a loudspeaker of 93dB, which is a moderate efficiency. It will need 1/4 the power for the same sound pressure. 100 watts is a lot easier to find in a tube amp, and in many rooms you could get by with 60 watts.