2. amps-preamps
  3. 140001-93362

Whats the FATTEST sounding Tube amp to warm up Lean speakers?

What would you say is the fattest, warmest fullest sounding Tube amp to fatten up
Merlin VSM's?

They are 8 ohm, and easy to drive. 30wpc would do.

From my understanding, through reading here, the Famous match with AtmaSphere s30 actually doubles up on the natural detailed and spacious yet lean character of the Merlins.

Which Amp would do the opposite - be a little forgiving and sweet in the higher mids and fatter and fuller in the lower mids?

Thanks
dumbeat

Showing 3 responses by rodman99999

rodman99999
6,206 posts
 
@dumbeat- Regarding under-biasing: That will somewhat reduce your dynamics and may soften what you’re calling, "bite". Trying that won’t hurt anything, and actually increases tube life, though- at the cost of fidelity. https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews/amplification/output-tube-biasing-an-introduction/
rodman99999
6,206 posts
 
@ salectric- I’ve been using a Cary SLM-100 pair, for close to 15 years now. The last thing they are is colored(warm/fat sounding). Cary offered Jensen’s copper foil/PIO caps, as an("upgrade") option in their amps, but- Carys are not known(typically) for coloring the music they reproduce. Of course(again), tube choices can make a big difference.
rodman99999
6,206 posts
 
Whatever tubed amp you choose, load it with NOS British valves(Mullard/Brimar/Ediswan/Genelex/etc).  If those don't warm/sweeten/fatten things up enough, swap it's resistors out for carbon compositions, and/or- it's coupling capacitors, for oil in paper types.
More to discover