Top Ten Tube Amps of All Time?

Finally after coming to this site for about a year now, finally a post I’m not afraid of getting "razzed" on. Thanks Ferrari. I really get a lot of pleasure from my McIntosh 240 amp. To this day, I never tire of listening to my music and can go on for hours and on end. Really lyrical, great soundstage, crisp, rich, detail. Realistic vocals. Even when playing a movie on DVD, my heart has been known to skip a beat during an explosion scene. I’ve had my 240 since the early 80’s as a gift from my cousin. Never had any desire to get rid of it. Once in a while, I take a reality check by going in to a salon and reminding myself how good I have it. Currently I have it paired with CJ PV11 pre-amp, CJ CD player, Allison one speakers, Golden Tube AC enhancer, MIT interconnects and monster speaker cables. After reading all the banter on Audiogon about brands of tubes, I took my amp to a McIntosh authorized shop to be re-tubed. The guys laughed at all the hype and reminded me of a simple fact, there is a reason why the audio designers choose the specs that they want. To make a long story short, we ended up upgrading the capacitors, jacks, terminals and AC cord and used Mac spec tubes. All I can say is the end result was amazing. When I went to pick up my amp, they were beaming. When they brought it out from the back, one of the techs came out (a young pup who wasn’t born when my amp was built). He came out to tell me in his opinion the 240 could go up against a lot of current high-end gear. Oh BTW, recently I stopped by my local "high end" audio salon (one that frequently has Mac tubes in the window) to shop for MIT speaker cables. I’ve been using the same ones for 15 years now and thought it was time for a change. The sales man thought my speakers were not up to par with the rest of my gear and tried to convince me that instead of upgrading the speaker cables, a set of ProAc’s would bring the system into the new era... any thoughts?

Lamapp You have a fine piece in the McIntosh 240 and I'm sure with the upgrades it does hold its own with many. I have a pair of MC-60s which I have owned for 10 years. They have been extensively modified and I'll still take them (got rid of a Threshold in favor of them) over ANY solid state amp I have heard to date. There is something in the midrange that is so compelling with tube amps, that presence that I never hear with solid statem, even a classic design like yours. My ARC amp certainly has better highs, better defined bass and a more dimensional soundstage than the MC-60s but I doubt if it has a better midrange. And of course there is the art in those power transformers from MAC. They don't make them like that anymore.

ALL THE ABOVE AMPS ARE VERY FINE MY FAVORITE AND I TOO WILL GIVE UP MY AGE ON THIS ONE WILL ALWAYS BE THE MCINTOSH MC-225

ARC D-79, VTL Ichiban, Atmasphere MA-2 MkII, Wavac HE-833. Interstingly the D-79's midrange has only recently been equaled, and bettered by the Wavac which takes the same life-like qualities and extends them out to the frequncy extremes.

I guess "all time" includes now. There's one amp that I believe stands head and shoulders above the crowd...the Art Audio Diavolo. This is the one that sounds like music. Single-ended, yes. Dynamic, extended, coherent, palpable, resolving, true, the whole schmagoo. And the price is reasonable for an amp that will truly take you into the high end. artaudio.com