I'd be careful - see if you can return if not happy. I listened to the i5 earlier this year, and found it to have many of the properties claimed by tube amplifiers - a very natural midrange, and a realistic if not very powerful bass range.I find it hard to lump all tube products together and all SS together. To my ears, some of the tube products have more in common with some SS than other tube stuff. My point is every product sounds unique, and its sound is determined by a lot more than whether it uses solid state or vacuum semiconductors.
should i do tube?
so i have a few grand to spend. you can check out my system, but basically it's an analog front end. im currently using a sim i-5 integrated, but cancelling out the pre section by using a bottlehead foreplay pre, which makes a very nice difference. question is, should i just go to pure tubes. the latest audio advisor catalog has 2 amps which sound very interesting, the antique sound lab aq-1001dt integrated, and the mgsi 15 dt integrated which is set. let me be clear here...things sound very good as is. but im intrigued about using all tubes. and the 1001dt especially interests me cause it's 50 wpc and has a remote, and seemingly very easy bias adjustment, which i really want. so all opinions would be very appreciated here. and if these amps could be bettered in a similiar price range, please chime in.
thanks all...
thanks all...