2. amps-preamps
  3. 161993-9347

Tube Amp lower power vs higher power and cruising volume

After having Solid State my entire life thus far, I bought a PrimaLuna EVO 300 integrated and absolutely love it. I am currently driving 20 year old B&W CDM9NT's and it does a wonderful job, I never heard my B&W's have that much bass before, even at lower listening volumes. The EVO 300 is rated at 42W. Since I recently purchased it I have the option for a brief time without losing money to possibly move up to the EVO 400 integrated which adds 4 more output tubes and gives you 70W. I believe the 300 and 400 both use the same transformer because they both weigh the same 68 lbs. So my only reason for possibly doing this would be for future speaker upgradability having a little more power. I know my B&W's are not the most efficient and the 300 seems to be driving them very well, volume rarely goes past 9:30/10. So my question, if I get a higher power model, since I listen most of the time at comfortable listening levels, with a higher power tube amp will you have to turn it up higher to hit that cruising speed where it starts to open up? The 300 seems to hit that early and I listen at comfortable levels and good extended bass without having to crank it which is nice when I am listening at night and my wife and daughter are sleeping. Overall I am very happy with the 300 but while I have the option I am trying to decide if the extra for a 400 is worth it. Thanks
jmphotography

Showing 1 response by decooney

decooney
2,334 posts
 
@jmphotography
FYI, give your amp, tubes, caps inside time to settle in if it’s all brand new. Break-in / burn-in is a real thing, and it will smooth out some more once you get 200+hrs on it. Let this occur before changing more output or small input tubes or cables. Patience will pay off, as many learn later... If it’s brand new, more smoothing out is yet to occur.

If you can manage to stick with the 300, you might be saving yourself a future step-back-down step later on. More tubes is more heat, more maint, cost,and does not always sound better. I’d prefer to have less tubes, less noise, with the same transformers, fwiw.
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