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Switching from solid state to tubes

Hello all, 

I am looking for advice regarding the purchase of a new (to me, not brand new) amplifier. I currently run a 5.1 home theater system with Sonus Faber Olympica IIs as my mains, Olympica Is as my surround, and an Emotiva center channel and SW. They are now being fed by an Emotiva XPA 5 that receives its signal from an Anthem AVM60 processor. I currently use the system 75% of the time for stereo music and the rest for 5.1 movies. And when it comes to music I do 50/50 records and streaming. 

I recently put together a Bottlehead amp and am really loving the tube sound and would look to bring that into my main system. But here are my questions going forward:
1) Would it be silly to bring in a tube amp to drive the mains and keep the rest of the system through the Emotiva SS?
2) If not, what power output should I be seeking for the stereo amp? (The Emotiva is currently rated @200 watts (8ohm)) 
3) Will the Anthem processor be able to properly match the output of the different amplifiers so the volume is nice and even across all channels? 
4) Do you have any suggestion for an entry level tube amp that matches the Olympicas well? 

Thanks!

-Al 

allforwill
wspohn's avatar
wspohn
598 posts
 
I ran my home theatre for awhile with my main system tube amp (CJ Premier 11a, 70 wpc) and it runs my 4 ohm 92 dB efficient speakers with no problem, but I eventually decided that I didn't want to use up hard to replace tubes with video so added another power amp for video only.

You need to either swap the speaker cables over when going from one form of entertainment to the other or get a switching box that handles 4 channels back and forth between two power amps.


allforwill OP
3 posts
 
Thank you all for your input! I eventually got the Bottlehead Kaiju into my system do drive the mains and even with only 8watt/channel it got plenty loud and still crystal clear for music. Unfortunately, even after tinkering with the levels on the Anthem, it still didn't have the right dynamics for movies. So right now I've got it running through Zone 2 on the Anthem for music only, and movies are still through SS. 
mr_m
1,900 posts
 
Have you considered a tube hybrid?
allforwill OP
3 posts
 
I have not, I was assuming (maybe incorrectly...) that the combination of tube pre and SS amp - as was previously suggested - would be superior. What would be the pros and cons of a hybrid? 
aberyclark
1,355 posts
 
I have a Rogue RP-5 tube pre with a SS Nuforce amp. I like the combination. However, from what I've read, The Rogue pre does not sound like a Tube pre in the traditional sense. Much more modern sounding. I do say that the mids and highs seem much more silky (with stock JJ tubes) than the previous Peachtree Nova Pre. 
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