Tube amp for Spendor S3/5 SE

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.

I just auditioned the A88T and I have Spendor S6e's. No problem driving them at all to realistic sound levels - noting that I did not listen in Triode (22w) much at all as I felt the sound was thin and light for my taste.

I did not end up purchasing the A88T(which sounded a bit better running as a standalone amp though my quicksilver Pre)as I thought it was a bit edgy at times on female vocals and in the upper registers. As a note, when I auditioned an SLI-80 I did not want to bring it back to the dealer - it made me want to listen to music, when I auditioned the A88T it did not and it was no sweat bringing it back and listening to my present system.
IT is a nice piece, but did not have the flesh on the bones or detail that I currently have.

Hi all,
I have also a Cayin A88T and I must say, it is a really great amplifier for a low amount of money!

As the standard version is alredy a great guy, I have modified the powersupply and this gives an amanzingly strong bass and the soundstage is even wider/deeper.

Meanwhile I have compared a lot of other tube-amps and also transistor amps. There is not a lot of amps around which are better than my modified Cayin. Last week I have had the Italian GRAAF GM200. Yes, this a great one with 200Watts OTL (no output transformers) but a little more expensive and "hungry" for electrical power.

Anyway, I love my Cayin :-)

Regards from Europe (I hope, my English is not too bad?)
Nos