2. amps-preamps
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To Tube or not to Tube......

For quite some time now I've been thinking about switching from a solid state to a tube power amp. My Threshold T-100 has been real good to me and I do like it, but it's really the only "high-end" amp I've ever owned, so it's all I know. I'm intrigued by the "warm" sound of tubes and do have a tubed phono amp and CD player, but I am by no means well-versed in the sound of tube power amps having never really auditioned one. I know that goes against the prevailing wisdom and I should listen before I buy, but I don't think I will have the luxury of doing that.

That being said, I've gone through about 20 pages of this forum reading about the benefits and detriments of tubed power amps but nothing I've read has swayed me either way. The posts I've read have been informative re: bias issues, reliability, blowing fuses or whatever else might blow up or go wrong with the tubs, etc. So, if I were to go the tube route, I would not want deal with too much of that hassle. At lease I know that the amp I have doesn't have any such issues. That's why I was leaning toward amps like BAT with their auto biasing (I also need balanced inputs), and would want at least 60-100 wpc. I would be willing to deal with adjusting bias so long as it was a relatively simple process.

I figured I would pose my main question to the exerts here (and this I did learn for this forum): given what I already have in my system, what tube amp would be a good match for me? My pre-amp is a SS Threshold, JM Lab speakers with a "minimum impedance of 4 Ohms," EAR 834P phono stage, & Unison tube cd player.
Much appreciated.
ebuzz

Showing 4 responses by jedinite24

jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hi Ebuzz. I agree with Charles1Dad's recent post. Only you will be able to know if any tube amp will be a significant upgrade to your existing T-100.

I have a Jolida JD-502P amp and I won an auction for a Hafler 9505 Transnova amp that was fully working. In my system I swapped out the Jolida for the solid state Hafler as I've always wanted to listen to this Hafler amp in my system. I kept everything the same. Now I couldn't say exactly which amp in my system was a significant upgrade but what I could tell was that it made the sound very different. With the Hafler 9505 in place the volume controls on my system got even more sensitive. It gets really loud but still clear with the volume on my preamp at the 9 o clock position.

So just be wary you might not get a significant upgrade in sound you just might get different sound that you may or may not prefer.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hi Ebuzz

One thing I forgot to mention is one thing you can do to handle the different but not necessarily better is tube roll. Warning this can be a very slippery slope. Really spend time listening to your Jolida as is a lot first before making tube changes. I was pretty excited when I got my 502P. I made notes of what people used in their Jolidas as well as read other tube reviews. In anticipation of tube rolling I purchased all sorts of preamp and power tubes and listed the combinations I was going to try. After awhile I was just swapping out tubes frequently. I have a large sized USPS box full of power and preamp tubes just for the Jolida now. I should have followed Wolf's path and kept things simple with the Tung Sol KT-120 power tubes, EH 12AT7s and just change out the 12AX7s.

Anyway enjoy and have fun. How are you going to A/B the Threshold T-100 vs the Jolida 1000P?
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hi Ebuzz

Regarding the new Jolida 1000P vs the "excellent condition" ARC VS 115 with 2 sets of tubes, one set brand new. Say you were to buy the Jolida new with warranty etc and you find you don't like the music from your system with the Jolida in place when you sell it you may lose a lot of money on the re-sale. Wolf showed me a listing of a black Jolida 502P that wasn't that old sell for $650 + shipping at an auction. The 502P sells for about $990 new. With the ARC VS115 since you are buying it used you may be able to re-sell it for close to what you bought it for keeping the loss to a minimum. You could even sell off the extra set of tubes for some extra money. Sorry if you knew this already but it is something I would consider if I was in your situation.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hi Ebuzz

My uncle has a ARC Tube preamp mated with Threshold SA amps and the music from his system sounds wonderful. I'd ask some ARC experts like Bifwynne or Hifigeek1 for their thoughts on ARC house sound.

With my Jolida amp I've used it with SS preamps mostly. From an Accuphase C200 to a Kavent S33 preamp I've had no issues with sound quality.
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