If you have ever been curious about the sound of tube amps, you have the perfect speakers. I had both the Response 2 and Response 3s, and they sound clorious with tubes, even low powered (8 watt) single-ended triodes (SETs).. I paired mine with Conrad Johnson push-pull amps, but there are plenty of others that would work fine with these very musical speakers. |
I own the Jeff Rowland Concentra intergrated amplifier for my ProAc 2.5 speakers. This combination and my Meridian 508.25 CD player sounds excellent. cheers.. |
i been try conrad johnson, audioresearch and mcintosh and krell but after i try cary (SE) i fell in love, if you have a chance to try cary with your proac do it .good luck |
Thanks folks for your advice. Seems like the TUBE camp are the majority. I was hoping it would be Solid state.
Looks like I need to do more research now.
Any additional help along these lines would be deeply appreciated. |
I am a PROUD owner of the Responce 2 and I have a Sonic Frontiers 80 running them which sounds glorious. I feel a
speaker like the responce 3 would deserve a better amp ( a
tube amp that is) I cannot personally speak for these amps, but according the reviews a good sounding tube amp are these Antique Sound Lab Hurrcaines. They provide plenty of power which would open up your soundstage. |
There are a number of candidates from Antique Sound Labs, but IMO the Hurricanes would be overkill. Much more power than you need. The ASLs with 300B and 845 output tubes are lovely sounding units and cost half (or less) of what the Hurricanes cost. Good luck with your quest. |
Thanks to all you helpful people,looks like I have some
homework to do. KEEP THOSE OPINIONS ROLLING IN!
Thanks again.
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If you're going the solid state option.......the combination of Jeff Rowland / ProAc / Cardas cables.....great match, you cannot go wrong!
FY, I'm using the Concenta II, Response D15. |
Well I finally bought an amp. The tube camp was the majority and
after much research, I bought a (Music Reference RM-200)amp
what a glorious match for the ProAcs. The Magic I've been looking for..
Thanks Everybody for your help.
Mike. |
Good luck with the new amp. I see there's a pair of Response 3s posted today (12/11/03) on Audiogon for $2K. Hope they find a worthy home. |
Thanks to all again.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS too.. |
Hey Mickey.As a former owner! You have a speaker that is truly a cult classic and justifiably so. And brother, they just love tubes. A marriage that will last forever! All the best in your search. |
Congrats on your purchase of the RM-200. Heard many great things about this piece of equiptment, one of them is that the tubes last several times longsr that other amps. I think that the output is set a bit lower per tube. I did this on my amp, don't notice any change in sound and I had my power tubes for over five years. Keep us posted on the preamp. I have an Audible Illusions Mod 3 that I am very happy with. See them all the time on this site. The only thing that I don't care for is the lack of a detachable power cord. |
I don't think that any tube amp gives you REAL,& HOLOGRAPHIC results. The overall result is always given by the unit's output transformers poor parameters with very low damping factor, there is no control over your speakers. The transients will be more than certainly cut off with a lot of THD and 2nd harmonic distortion, no good idea for classical music lover. I suggest good solid state amp such as for example bvaudio pre and power pa300.
visit their website |
Maximm. Yeah right! Have you ever heard the Proac response speakers with a good tube amp? Have you ever wondered why proac[the company] and far to many other top shelf speaker manufacturers partner their speakers with tube amplification? So they can hear that 5 parts of 1000 [.5%] total harmonic distortion? I would be willing to wager that the majority of proac owners know better and use tube amps.I personally know of 5 people in my area alone that all use tube amplification with their proacs,and none that are using SS amps. Care to wager on that one? We can do a little poll here if you wish. Make no mistake here, I am not condeming your amp recommendation or any other fine SS amp for that matter and I am sure they it would make for a fine sounding presentation.I know there are many and I have personally heard quite a few of them in my own rig with the proac. To slight a good tube amp without hearing one with the proac is just plain irresponsible. |
Stop the techno mythology. The people at Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson, BAT, Cary, Air Tight, MacIntosh, VTL, Manley, Unison, Quad, etc. etc. etc. are not crazy or music idiots. Properly designed tube amps make great music and so can ProAcs. Put together...well, we need say no more.
Every non-audiphile who has listened to my Air Tight/ProAc 2.5 combo has been mightly impressed to stunned. One guy even told me he could never have a system like this because he'd get nothing done at home - just music listening. Maybe if he knew more about the "technical problems" with tube designs things wouldn't have sounded so good. Unfortunately, he didn't so all he heard was a profoundly realistic music presentation. |
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Thanks, Ecclectique. There's a micro-brewery here in Michgan called "Bell's" and they make a delicious pale ale. However, they must not follow the proper technical beer brewing process because the ale is slightly cloudy and has a bit of sediment on the bottom. However, it is one of the finest brews I've ever tasted. It's kind of like a fine tube amp - it may not "bench out" the way such beers are supposed to but it sure does taste good.
This same sort of design artistry applies to hi-fi, beer, tequila, cars, etc.; some kind of soul gets infused into the thing that appeals to certain people. That's why some like BMWs and some Audis, some Don Julio and some El Tesoro. A buddy thinks Don Julio tastes "dirty" but I think it's peppery and rich. And I think his El Tesoro Anejo tastes a bit bland. Different strokes... |
