2. amps-preamps
  3. 1022725234

Reproduction of acoustic instruments with tube amp

I'm a "SS guy" looking to get a tube amp to play with. My biggest complaint with the tube amps that I have heard is that acoustic instruments don't sound real to me. Is this a common perception or have I just not heard a good tube amp? What design and/or type of output tubes should I look for if I want good reproduction of acoustic instruments? Any links to some docs on this topic would be appreciated as well. My budget is under $2k, speakers are 4ohm, 87dB but I don't need a lot of power (apartment). Thanks.
dburdick

Showing 2 responses by marakanetz

marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I would certainly aim for used BAT VK60 the regular stereo version. I believe that no better one can be offered to you in that price range if you are OK with used.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
VTLs are not bad amps at all but they have a tendency to "eat" tubes. They do not benefit too much(as to the value invested) from placing some fancy tubes on them so stay with stocked ones and save bucks. I strongly recommend to have a tube tester for VTL amps and test tubes every month+- depending on how heavy you listen. The bias circuitry can suffer from the bad tube and be partially destroyed. Biasing is necessary to perform at least twice per month. That is the other way of keeping track on performance stability. If suddenly you notice that one of the tubes is out of bias by large values you'll need definitely to check it. If you don't have a tube tester you must have an extra tube to place instead just in case and than somehow test the extracted one(it may be OK after all).
More to discover