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I've decided to try Tubes

I have been going back and forth a while. I was thinking of the Yamaha AS2100 to replace my B&K amp (ZU audio Omen Def speakers). For some reason I now have a tube bug. I first thought about DECWARE and now thinking of Primaluna after reading great reviews. If tubes are not for me, both should be easy to resell. I have an opportunity on a Primaluna Prolouge 5 stereo power amp. It has autobias (which is a must for me) and is easy to roll tubes. It comes with KT88's which seem to have better lower end than el34's (from what I read). 35 watts per ch is more than enough to drive my Omen Defs loud if needed (101 db). 

Thought's on the PrimaLuna and ZU combo (Peachtree NOVA-PRE)? I listen to Classic Jazz, Classical and Classic - Prog Rock mostly. 


aberyclark
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,797 posts
 
I agree with others who say Quicksilver......great amps and more importantly some of the best support in the business.....

I have a pair of Middle Monos and love them,  huge performance for the money.   Super reliable and tough too,  I had a driver tube short out, it took the input tube along with it.....called Mike before doing anything and he said it was probably limited to the tubes and he was right.  Didn't even blow the main fuse .  Replaced the tubes and all was well.   Rock solid build quality,  huge bang for the buck
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,797 posts
 
I meant Mid Monos.....damn spellcheck 
rotarius
431 posts
 
@aberyclark, the Primaluna Prologue is decent although the bass is a bit too loose for my tastes.  I thought the autobias feature while convenient is a bit gimmicky.  I prefer manual biasing.  The newer Jolidas are nice, don't overlook them due to posts from the past about QC.  I have a Jolida 3502 and it is simply superb.  Bettered the Primaluna in every way and I have owned it for a year without issues.  As others have said, Quicksilver amps are also really nice for the money.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,784 posts
 
We had a set of ZU Druids here for quite a while. It seems that all of the ZU lineup is tube friendly, and they are also fairly efficient, so you don't need a crazy amount of power.

If I had to guess my impression of the speaker is that its actual efficiency was a few db lower; more like about 97-98 db. They really seemed to benefit from some power, so we used them with our M-60s. They will make on special request, a 30-ohm version of the Definition, which works nicely with lower powered amps.
wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
I'm not going to mention the excellent Jolida tube amps again as it simply makes me look like too much of a fanboy. However, like I've said before, tube amps make you personally seem more interesting regardless of whether you actually are.
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