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 2 responses by hilde45

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,426 posts
 
+1 Mesch. I’m not sure but the "synergy" with the current arrangements might be affected, also. (In other words, you could mess it up by changing!)

There would be a wide range of speakers amenable to your present arrangement, too, so you’re not really avoiding a problem by sticking with what sounds good.
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
5,426 posts
 
@jmphotography 
+1 on the comments above.

I had a bit of brightness and thanks to advice from @decooney I got some nice KT77's for my outputs and they were a happy change from some rather harsh JJ KT88s. A change of signal tube in the preamp also made a difference.

I am very new to all this, but I am learning (as a general rule) that once one has good gear, the best place to educate myself about changes are with tubes and cables. Input tubes first, then other tubes and perhaps cables. It's very system dependent, and I'm just repeating what (I think) I've learned.

Also, for me, The Room is a big unaddressed area to consider. I have REW software and a microphone, and I'm learning how to deal with that issue. (The elephant in the room IS the room, I think the saying is.)
More to discover