phild
Responses from phild
| Help with a budget second system I'm not sure if this will matter or not, but Electronic Visionary Systems makes a volume control that connects directly to your amp...making a pre-amp (or CD equipped with volume control) unnecessary They cost less than $300, but there is no remot... | |
| TO be SET or to be OTL that is the ques. I'd be interested to read your responses, because I have the same question. I haven't had the chance to compare them side by side, but from what I gather...SET amps usually have that warmer "tube" sound, where OTL amps don't really "color" the sou... | |
| I need tube sound without the tubes I'd second the Aleph 3 recommendation, but those are around $1100 used. I'd recommend checking out some used Luxman amps from the 70s, or early 80s. They're solid state, but have a warm, smooth sound. They even made a few models of integrated amps... | |
| Best DIY tube amp kit(s) Atmasphere makes kits for their M-60 MKII OTL amps, and they are very well reviewed. The kit is the same as the production model...but much cheaper. Their address is www.atma-spere.com. | |
| Power Plants PS300? The 300 watt limit (and I think they actually recommend 250)is based on the amount of watts that the components actually draw from the power source. The amount will vary, depending on the output power and design of the unit. For example...a Pass A... | |
| Tranport and wire for Bel Canto DAC1 I'm not positive about this, but I think Bel Canto designed their DAC to work best with a toslink cable. You can go to www.belcantodesigns.com and ask them yourself. I'm sure they could recommend a transport too. I've called them before and they'r... | |
| Speakers for Luxman components I had the Luxman 384 Integrated (tube-pre), and I currently have an m-2000/c-1010 combo (from the mid 70s) and both worked extremely well with my Mission 753s. They're British and they don't have a huge prescence here, but they're more readily ava... | |
| Best matching speaker for Alepha 3. I've been using mine with Mission 753's (91db 6 ohm), and it sounds amazing. My room isn't too small(maybe 12' x 20'), and I've never had a problem with too little volume. | |
| Need FM/AM tuner, suggestions I agree with the Onkyo comment above. You might also want to try looking for an old Luxman or Harmon Kardon (I have a Citation 25?...I think...and it's very good for the $150 or so it cost used). | |
| Integrated Tube amps w/remote I've read a lot of great things about Bel Canto Design's SETi40 (37 watts(?)single ended w/845 tubes), but it only has 3 line inputs (no phono). I haven't had the chance to listen to one yet, but people have told me that they sound great (better t... | |
| introducing tube$ into my system The tube pre-amp will definitely ad some tube sound to your system, but a company like Meadowlark designs their speakers to work best with tube amps (it has to do with the technical aspects, like damping, etc...not just the "tube sound" itself). A... | |
| XLR/Balanced problems??? No...the balanced outputs are constant...that's why I can't figure out why they're signal is so much stronger than the unbalanced at maximum volume. | |
| Do I really need separates? I haven't had a chance to check them out yet, but I've read a few good things about Bel Canto Designs("A few" is all the press they've gotten). They make an integrated tube unit (the SETi40) that retails for $5200, and they say they think it may s... |