Where's the trade off?


Hi. I run a Rogue Cronus Magnum with Harbeth C7ES3's and a Audiolab 8200cdq as a source. I love my system with the exception of wishing I had some tighter bass. I find that I don't listen to music as much as I did when I had a solid state amp because I can't leave my amp on all the time. My previous set up was a NAD C317 (loved) with B&W DM 602's (also loved). With that old NAD integrated, I listened to tunes all the time. Now I turn on the TV when I would normally want to listen to music on week nights because of warm up time and tube usage. I find my current system to sound similar to my old system. My question is, does anyone think I can find a solid state amp that sounds similar to my Rogue? Can I go back to solid state and still be happy? I must be able too because I had it before. That NAD amp didn't sound that much different to me than what I have now. The NAD was not bright at all and it was very musical from what I remember. I'm wondering if I should be looking at a Luxman, LFD etc? I've tube rolled and that's helped me out a lot but it doesn't help with the fact that I have to wait for my amp to warm up. I'm not a patient person when it comes to music. My speaker cables are Audioquest Rockefellers and I can't remember who makes my interconnect, although I really don;t think I can hear differences between similar cables.
donjr

Showing 2 responses by meiwan

I'll take the opposite point of view. I use C7's with a Mastersound compact 845 tube integrated. while it takes the tubes a few minutes to warm up, so do solid state amps.

I brought an LFD mkIV home to try and didn't like it. Sounds pretty much like Naim stuff to me. Sorry, no tube magic.

A few hundred bucks every few years is minimal for the enjoyment of tubes. As too the soft bass response - clean power will fix that up - dedicated line, outlet, power cable - and some lean front end tubes - try Mazda/Cifte, Telefunken etc. You mentioned tube rolling - I'm assuming good NOS.
Agree the Rogue would not be my first choice for a tube like sound. It's also not priced that much above the NAD stuff, so may not be a huge improvement. KT88 tubes are the least tube like as well.

Best I can offer is with SET EL34 or 845 output tubes, the Harbeth's are magic. You might look a the Mastersound dueVenti (el34, 20wpc) or the Unison S6 (el34, 30wpc.) Either of those would move you up a to a whole new level.

If you are sweating the tube thing, the Pathos Classic One MkIII hybrid or one of the Unison Unico hybrids would also be a great match.