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Tubes and Rock and Roll, Can they go together?

I just got back from Harvey Electronics in New Jersey. I demo-ed 2 sets of equipment:
Set 1
McIntosh MC-2102
McIntosh C-2200
McIntosh MCD-205
Sonus Cremona
Set 2
McIntosh Mc-402
McIntosh C-45
Marantz SA-11s1
Martin Logans

The CD's that were demo-ed were Various Artist. I enjoy easy listening music, but I do have a number of CD's that are classical rock (80's Rock Bands) The tube set up was incredible on Vocals and solo instuments, not to mention their stunning looks. Probably the very best I have heard to date. The problem was when I put in some classical rock, the sound became less enjoyable and almost seemed like it lost definition and it's musical appeal. When I listend to the solid state set up, it sounded better with the Rock, but it lost it's enjoyable appeal. The tubes set up, I felt I could have listened to soft music all day. Besides buying the new 15K McIntosh tube/solid state pre, is there away I can enjoy classical rock from a tube based system? Would changing speakers help? Thanks!
128x128musicaudio
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,927 posts
 
I was at Harvey in Paramus and listened to the Logans and Cremonas.
In my opinion what doesn't go together is rock&roll and Martin Logan speakers. They are not for rock&roll and I haven't heard a pair of Logans to date that played rock music good. I think the Cremonas with a right tube amp and a tube preamp can repro rock as well. You demoed speakers that are pretty laid back(Cremonas) with dark sounding electonics(Mac). Not exactly a good match, especially for rock music. You need something more lively than the Mac to go with Cremonas.
Try Cremona speakers with Krell. Solid state, I know, but this will wake the Cremonas up and get them all ready for that rock&roll music you wanna hear. And then you can get a nice tube preamp to go with that Krell amp.
wlo98
25 posts
 
My BAT VK60 tube amp driven by the Modwright SW9SE with RCA bronze plate 5687 tubes do excellent job for both Jazz, Blue, rock & roll and havey matel ! In fact, the VK60 provides a much tighter bass than my previous biamping setup (Bryston 2BLP and 3BST).
dhills974b
1 posts
 
Tube amps are fantastic with Rock music! I listen to 60's - 70's music. I run a tri-amp configuration. This gives you the best of all worlds. The LF and HF are driven with SS amps and the mids (80 hz - 10K hz) are powered by the tube mono-blocks.
musicaudio's avatar
musicaudio OP
31 posts
 
Thanks everyone for your comments. I find that there is hope for Rock and Roll with tubes. Just a quick rebutle, unfortunately, Harvey's only has two major high end speakers and that is the Sonus's and Martin Logan's. The Sonus's, I tend to agree with the above comments, they are laid back and tend to work best with only certain types of music. The Martin Logans, I think are a horrible speaker. I don't think they present well. I would have been very curious to hear them with B&W's maybe the 805s. In terms of switching away from McIntosh, I tend to really like McIntosh. Although I hear they have just been bought out by another company, but in terms of good looks, sound quality, build quality, I just dont they can be beat. I'll have to demo McIntosh Tubes and B&W's and if it still does not sound good with rock, I'll try some of the above tube equipment. I have pretty much made my mind though that tubes are the way to go, so I am a tube convert. lol. Thanks Everyone!
jond's avatar
jond
5,807 posts
 
Musicaudio,
Why are you confined to shopping at Harvey? If you are in NJ there must be tons of good audio store in both NJ and NYC. Why not shop around and find someone to set up a good tubes/rock demo for you with appropriate speakers? Happy listening!
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