What speakers are you using and what is the size of the listening room?
DeKay
DeKay
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?
Showing 3 responses by dekay
Almost forgot: Here is a link to a single ended (?) solid state integrated amplifier. https://avahifi.com/collections/power-amplifiers/products/set-120-control-amplifier If you click on the review link @ the very bottom of the page you will read that the reviewer mated it to a pair of ZU speakers and compared the sound to that of DH/SET. Found it interesting. DeKay |
With the room size and speakers I would go for DH/SET. I use old Bottlehead 2A3 DH/SET mono block amps with wide range single driver speakers and previously used an Audion 300B DH/SET. The output tubes I use (Visseaux, Ken-Rad dual flat plates and RCA's) now cost more than I paid for my amps and preamp. I'm not familiar with the new Bottlehead offerings, or anything else recent for that matter. Of the amps you list the RM10 stands out for it's unusual but really great sound. Think it's been almost 20 years since I listened to Decware (one of their first 83/El84 amps). What amps have you used with the Omega's (just curious). DeKay |