Will you be listening to vinyl? If so, you'll want a phono stage built in, else you have to spring more for that unless you already have one. I have a Rogue Cronus Magnum III and I like it a lot. It drives Heresy IVs in a small, complex space and I feel like it gets the most out what the room limits can accommodate. For the price, it has a fine phono stage, it's good looking and it is made in Pennsylvania. I listened to the LM EL34 (I have a 508ia which is a dream machine) which sounded great but again I wanted the phono stage and opted to buy American. The little Leben is beautiful and very sweet sounding but no remote (which seems silly but it really is handy) and no phono. Never listened to any Cary.
Tube virgin looking for tube amp under $3k
I’ve never owned any tube amps or preamps and since I’ve got 95dB efficient speakers I thought why the heck not? And wow! What a rabbit hole I’ve gone down In the last week or so and my head is really spinning. For just about every amp or amp/preamp combo there’s someone who loves it and someone who says don’t bother. And then the more I dig, the more brands I find.
I’ve read about these products recently:
— Erhard Audio integrated amp
—The various iterations of the ST-70 (Van Alstein, Bob Latino, Will Vincent, etc.)
—Music Reference RM10
—Cary (out of budget except used)
—Raven (at max budget for integrated)
—Dennis Had (hard to buy/find)
—Quicksilver Mid mono (need preamp)
—Decware (too long a wait for me at the moment but maybe one day)
—Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III (at max budget and do I really need 100WPC with my speakers in a small room?)
And probably a few others I’ve forgotten about already.
I have to say that the Bob Latino ST-70 speaks to me for the price of entry (about $1400) and the fact that I could get away without a preamp and only use a passive input selector. That said, would an ST-70 be the best choice or only the cheapest?
Any ideas for a tube newb who doesn’t have a stockpile of tubes to roll in and out of an amp?
I’ve read about these products recently:
— Erhard Audio integrated amp
—The various iterations of the ST-70 (Van Alstein, Bob Latino, Will Vincent, etc.)
—Music Reference RM10
—Cary (out of budget except used)
—Raven (at max budget for integrated)
—Dennis Had (hard to buy/find)
—Quicksilver Mid mono (need preamp)
—Decware (too long a wait for me at the moment but maybe one day)
—Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III (at max budget and do I really need 100WPC with my speakers in a small room?)
And probably a few others I’ve forgotten about already.
I have to say that the Bob Latino ST-70 speaks to me for the price of entry (about $1400) and the fact that I could get away without a preamp and only use a passive input selector. That said, would an ST-70 be the best choice or only the cheapest?
Any ideas for a tube newb who doesn’t have a stockpile of tubes to roll in and out of an amp?