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Picking a Tube integrated amp

Hey all. Trying to figure out my amp situation and am looking at a few integrated to upgrade to. 

I currently have a McIntosh integrated and want to move to tubes. I have the vivid v1.5speakers and a Clearaudio Concept. Looking at the following:

—Primaluna Dialogue premium or HP.
—Audio Research VSi60
—Octave v40SE

Question...does the AR still hold up? It’s likely it will be a used model, but curious if it’s still competing with the others I listed. Any others to consider?  

Thanks!


 
rubytuesday

Showing 1 response by electroslacker

electroslacker
375 posts
 
I'm very familiar with the original VAC Avatar, which has four things going for it: 1) Switchable between triode/ultralinear, 2) great el34 tube sound for voice/midrange, 3) it's a VAC, which means great sound and good investment at used prices, 4) not really any advances in tube sound since it was made, and VAC still supports them.

The subsequent Avatar models might be better in some ways, but I've never heard them, and you lose 1) and 2) above.
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