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The Fourfold path...which way to go?

Ok, I thought I could do it....forsake tubes for solid state. I miss the bloom and liquidity, no matter how smooth the sound, no ss seems to be able to reproduce that crystal glass midrange and high. So now I've got to find the best way to take advantage of both worlds...the tight bass of ss and the glorious midrange and highs of tubes. As I see it, I've got three choices within my budget. 1)I can biamp my Vandersteens using my old Dynaco on top to run the mids and highs, but to do this I'll need a good active crossover 2)Dump my cheap ass Nakamichi CD player and go with either a Tjoeb or Jolida tube output CD player 3)Dump my Aragon Pre amp and go with a Conrad Johnson PV10AL or 4)The cheapest option...get one of those Musical Fidelity "tube buffers" to put between the CD and Pre or the Pre and Amp. I figure that with these four options I can get away for somewhere between 100 and 400 bucks (not including trade in value) Any suggestions? No, I'm not spending more than 400 bucks.
issabre
sedond
1,387 posts
 
electrocompaniet components - both amps *and* preamps - don't have your typical solid-state glare or haze, imo...
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Sedond, you are quite right about the Electrocompaniet components - no mosfet haze. That's because there's NO mosfets. They're bipolar. I guess it all depends on what you like. To my ears, there's two kinds of solid state. Those trying to sound like tubes(Adcom, previous generation Musical Fidelity, Muse), and those that don't(Electrocompaniet, McCormack, Mark Levinson). But while the ones using bipolar output transistors don't have have haze, they don't have warmth, bloom, or a tube's soul either. Bottom line, there is NO substitute for tubes. Conversely, tubes will NEVER do what ss does well either.
harrysum
15 posts
 
Issabre, I used Perraux 5150B with SFL2 and Martin Logan Sequal II, the bass is very fast and tight but the high is not detail and rich (the sound stage is kind of narrow)- I didn't know it until I changed the amp with SF power 3(originally I planned to use the Perraux for the bass and use the SF power 3 for the mid and above, but it's too difficult for me. So now I am just using power 3 without the SS.
rfj
43 posts
 
I would go the electronic cross-over route. The cross-over frees the high frequency amp from producing the power demanding low frequency which the ss amp handles easily and the harmonics of the high end are preserved by the tube amp. Now the downside: The double amps make for a wiring and shelf storage nightmare. Hum can be a problem with double amps and you really do need that common ground. I have 3 systems all using electronic cross-overs and I wouldn't have it any other way. But wiring and finding room for every thing can be a bear.
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