Tube CDP's/DAC's are a walk in the park. You change tubes only when they fail or wear out. When they fail you loose a channel, when they wear out you can tell by the sound which becomes dullish. Same for tube pre-amps. Amps are a bit more problematic but only a bit if you make sure when you buy one that it has individual bias controls for each tube and a built in meter. I've owned a lot of SS stuff and tubes over the years - I've had a lot of SS failures and only a few tube failures (related just to the tubes). There is a learning curve in using and buying tubes but that can be seen as part of the hobby.
Tube Newbie
I have been running a fairly beautiful 5.1 surround set-up over the last few years, and have grown a bit weary of my 2-channel quality. While I love the quality of surround sources (DVD, HDTV, ProLogic II), I tend to get listening fatigue with dynamic music. My goal is to warm-up 2-channel, making it more itimate witout wiping out the detail and punch in my 5.1 sources.
A good friend has suggested a CD player with a tubed output stage, like the Ah line carried by Upscale Audio. I am also considering a VTL 2-channel amp (around $2K) to drive the L/Rs of my system.
I am wondering how difficult it is to deal with tubes. I have read about "biasing" tube-based amps and have no idea what that intails.
My current system consists of: Gallo Reference 3s L/R, 7 channels of amplification from Parasound Halo (A52/A23), Def Tech SuperCube II sub, Gallo Dues for the surrounds and a soon-to-be-upgraded B&W LCR600 for the center channel. The Gallo Reference 3s have the second coil of the woofer bi-amped via an Outlaw Audio ICBM (hence the 7-channels of amplification). Processing is via an older Rotel RSX-1055 (using the pre-amp outs) while I figure out what pre/pro to get. The DVD/CD player is an Integra 5.3 using the analog outs for 2-channel.
Thanks,
Ted
A good friend has suggested a CD player with a tubed output stage, like the Ah line carried by Upscale Audio. I am also considering a VTL 2-channel amp (around $2K) to drive the L/Rs of my system.
I am wondering how difficult it is to deal with tubes. I have read about "biasing" tube-based amps and have no idea what that intails.
My current system consists of: Gallo Reference 3s L/R, 7 channels of amplification from Parasound Halo (A52/A23), Def Tech SuperCube II sub, Gallo Dues for the surrounds and a soon-to-be-upgraded B&W LCR600 for the center channel. The Gallo Reference 3s have the second coil of the woofer bi-amped via an Outlaw Audio ICBM (hence the 7-channels of amplification). Processing is via an older Rotel RSX-1055 (using the pre-amp outs) while I figure out what pre/pro to get. The DVD/CD player is an Integra 5.3 using the analog outs for 2-channel.
Thanks,
Ted
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