2. amps-preamps
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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?




larshepping

Showing 1 response by jplunkettj

jplunkettj
64 posts
 
@larshepping, I sympathize with you. I just went down the same rabbit hole with my system.  I have Spatial M3 triode masters apx 95 db efficiency as well (16ohm). I was considering Don Sachs new Kootenay integrated tube amp but he is backlogged for possibly years at this point.  I ended up ordering his preamp instead.  He actually went online and made some suggestions for good tube amps to try for my remaining $1000 budget.  I ended up getting a VTA Bob Latino ST-120 tube amp. I think a similar new one assembled by Tubes4hifi was going to cost about $1900.   Don suggested this over Prima Luna that I was considering.  The manual biasing is not a big deal and the KT88 tubes seem to provide all the power i need for the Spatials.  My room size is 15 x 16 x 8h.  I don't have the Sachs preamp in the system yet so i am using my old Adcom GFP 555 preamp and i must say that it sounds very good. Dead quiet, very good detail throughout from lows to highs. I am shocked at how good this sounds for the money.  I am really looking forward to how the system sounds when the new preamp arrives.   I was worried about power since it was suggested that the Spatials might play best with min 60 watts/channel. This may not be a concern for your speakers. You may want to contact Don Sachs and talk to him about a Kootenay.
Happy hunting!   
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