Tube amp for Spendor S3/5 SE

Rk,

I experimented with KT88, 6550, and EL34 with my Prima Luna PL2. I eventually settled on EL34 (and 6CA7). More than enough bass, excellent with vocals. I use Electro Harmonix all around for both the pre and power amp tubes. The EH's sound pretty good, are some of the most economical tubes out there, and definitely are better than the stock tubes that come with the Prima Luna. Before you go down the tube rolling and NOS paths, listen for awhile and learn what you like.

Best regards,

Rich

Rhljazz...thanks for the info. Primaluna Prologue One comes default with EL34s. May be i should go with Prologue One.

Rich..thanks a lot for the info. I agree with you that iinitially i should stick with stock tubes and after learning a bit about tubes then i can think about experimentation.

Btw PrimaLuna PL1 comes with stock EL34s. Do you think getting PL1 is a bad idea compared to PL2? I also saw your nice review on PL2.

Regards,
-RK

Hi Rk:

Getting the PL1 is not a bad idea. It's well made, performs well, sounds good ... all the things that an amp should do. The PL2 has upgraded parts. Let your wallet decide. On a $1000 budget, you could probably swing buying a PL1 new, but not a PL2.

It's a lot like when my wife and I went stove shopping a few weeks ago ... the $1000 stove looked cheap when sitting next to the $2300 stove on a show room floor of 20 other stoves. In my kitchen, the $1000 stove looks just fine.

At the time I purchased my PL2 (2005), it was the same price as the PL1 is today.

Best regards,

Rich

I use a Cayin A88T with my Spendor S8e's and to me they sound wonderful. Plenty of power with 45 tube watts. Be aware, you will probably need close to that many watts with the Spendor 3/5 with a tube amp because for the same amount of input, when I compared the two (I owned both at the time), the Spendor S8e's sounded louder.