Tube amp suggestions for Divine Acoustic speakers
Hello all. I’m in the market for a tube amplifier that will be powering Divine Acoustics Proxima 3 speakers. Here are the specs:
The preamp being used is an Aric Audio Unlimited all tube preamp. I’m definitely considering Aric’s amplifiers but I’m also exploring other options as well. Specifically 300B tube amps.
Do you think a 300B tube amp would drive them sufficiently? What other tube amps would be a good match in your opinion? Budget wise I’m around $4K new or used. I'm also curious if tube rectification on a power amplifier is important or not to sound quality. Thanks for any suggestions.
Dont. I have no idea how they say a 2 wpc amp will drive 89dB speakers. I’m using 2wpc on my 96dB speakers. I generally don’t recommend tube amps for insensitive speakers. Many do it but I don’t think they get the advantages of a tube amp like they would with a sensitive speaker and end up with a compromise. I’d go with a 25 wpc class A solid state amp. Jerry |
@ten_ton_bass I just wanted to provide my experience here and say that a 300B SET amplifier will not be able to drive your speakers very loudly, so if you're listening at 70-75db levels, it might work. Otherwise I really like push-pull amplifiers for speakers that are in the 89 db range, and in fact I've had clients successfully drive Magneplanar 4 ohm speakers using my Transcend Push Pull, even with only 35 watts per channel and EL34s. So you could definitely use that to drive your Divine speakers to healthy, and even loud levels. In fact, a push pull tube amplifier is pretty much perfect for these speakers and SET starts to really shine when using speakers at 93 db and above. There will be opinions all over the map here I'm sure, but I have had more than a few customers express they're very happy with such a pairing. All the best, Aric |
If you can score the Carver Crimson 275 for $2750 as advertised on Underwood's website, I'd do it in a minute. His 'homage' to the McIntosh MC275with the kind of original thinking and tweaks only Bob Carver can do, plus a very conservative design relative to tube life, that would be a no-brainer for me. At 75W/Ch it may be a bit more power than you would otherwise buy, but I would just consider it extra headroom. My second choice would be an EL-34/6550 roughly 40W/Ch Amp. A restored vintage McIntosh MC240 would be great, but a more modern interpretation of that basic architecture would also work very well. I would take a close look at the Prima Lun 200/300/400 models. They're kinda textbook examples of the most common approaches to the EL-34 design world: Triode and Ultralinear, plus tube options including the EL-34, KT-88, KT-120, and KT-150. I'd probably lean towards the KT-88, but that's just me. |
