Tube amp recommendations to drive Joseph Audio speakers

I suggest the leanness you are hearing is likely from your preamp- notes from a review:

"Notes on Tonal Structure

I should note that the tonal integration of the Reference Two… the sense of "top-to-middle-to-bottom tonal balance and proportion" was very good. Overall, it’s my distant impression that this preamp does just a touch better with tube amps than solid state—the level of detail delivered to the wrong solid-state amp could definitely err in the grievous direction of dryness, which would be a real shame. High frequency extension was truly excellent; the midrange was neutral; the bass was controlled, though with perhaps a touch of leanness with the Linn Klimax."

The reason I believe this is that I had the XA25 with my Cary Audio preamp and it was too mid bass heavy - so I sold it.

Regardless, possibly one of the best sounding systems I have heard in my audio life is a set of JA Pulsars driven by a Rogue Audio RP-5 preamp and Stereo 100 power amp. Sound was punchy, super clean and refined. Amazing !

The ARC Ref 2 I'm currently using was a big improvement on the solid state Classe preamp I had been using.  The Ref 2 I've owned for over a decade, it is definitely not lean tonally; if anything, it's slightly on the warm and "tubey" side.

I've inserted an Audio Research VT100 into this system as an experiment.  The VT100 is vintage 1995 or so but has been updated with new caps and a set of KT120 output tubes.  Sounds very good, but has more fan noise than I expected.

So at a crossroads presently.

FYI, Jeff Joseph recommends using an amp of at least 60 wpc for the Pulsars.

I’m using Lab12 Integre4 MKII. In the process of auditioning it, I also auditioned Lab12 Suara and Lab12 Pre1. They sounded largely identical to my ears. You can consider the Suara, although if I am you I would consider selling your ARC pre and getting the more expensive integrated Integre 4 MKII instead simply because it runs cooler and the biasing procedure is painless (took me less than 5 mins to bias 4 KT170 tubes with the built in LED screen). Lab12 stuff really deserves to be more well-known, their tube amps compare favorably with the best SS class A amps out there. They are some of the best amps money could buy. 

pr

49 posts

07-07-2023 at 08:17am 

The Quicksilver amps used tubes penthode, the tonality ad clarity are not as good than tubes 300b or 2a3 but the power and dynamic are better.                              The Joseph audio speakers are not very sensible so it's a better choice to choose penthode amps.
 

Anyone have a pocket translator for this?