Sorry meant to say MA9s2's
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After some early aspirational days with a few modest solid state amps (Acurus and B&K) I stepped it up to a Balanced Audio Technology tube amp. The VK-55 was really lovely. I played around with a Classe preamp for a while and ended up with a tube preamp: the Audio Research LS-25. Eventually, after a speaker change, I needed a bit more power, so I traded the power amp in for an Audio Research VT100mkII which had about double the power. As these are older pieces of tube gear, they needed the occasional maintenance. After a bit of annoyingly bad luck with some noisy tubes, followed by more bad luck with some some noisy capacitors in the power amp, I decided to explore solid state again.  I had to mail the power amp in to Minnesota for service all the way from Florida more than once, so the round trip shipping alone, not to mention lifting the box into the car was enough to get me to consider solid state. I evaluated my amp and preamp value at about $4500, so I began looking for a similarly priced solid state option.  I found a great deal on a PASS labs x250 power amp and a PASS labs x1 preamp.  Top notch stuff, great deal, bought them both, set them up on the audio shelf next to my Audio Research gear. My mother in law is a Krell & Wilson woman (imagine my eyes the first time I walked into her living room, with her daughter, my girlfriend at the time!) which means her daughter, now my wife, grew up listening to hi-fi gear and auditioning in audio salons.  My wife has an excellent ear. We sat on the sofa together and played 3 or 4 well known tracks on a couple of different LPs.  Favorite tunes, well recorded, all that.  Then I disconnected the PASS gear and reconnected the ARC gear.  We played the 1st track... My wife looked at me, and said, "You're crazy if you sell this Audio Research stuff." I agreed.  The PASS labs gear, lovely as it is, made a swift departure, and the Audio Research amp and preamp are on my rack today.  Since that fateful moment about 2.5 years ago, I have sent my power amp in for service once more, but I don't get so bent out of shape anymore.  Its worth the trouble.  Tubes are worth the trouble. I think my next upgrade may be to the ARC VM 220 mono blocks as my speakers are on the inefficient side, and could use a bit more power.  I may upgrade to the ARC REF2 or REF 3 preamp as well, but I don't see either of those changes happening anytime soon.  I am super happy with my power amp and preamp. So to answer your question more simply, in my case, my tube amp makes me smile.  If I am forced to answer your question as you are asking it, my mother in law's Krell KAV-250a makes her Wilson Cub's sing wonderfully.  I feel her system is as enjoyable as mine.  The Krell and Wilsons are on Audiogon at the moment for $1500 & $2500 respectively, and are a great combo.  (there is also an ARC VT100mkII for sale at $2,000!) Tubes my friend, go old school, they're so cool. |
I've mostly been a SS guy over the years, but I appreciate what good tube amps can do. The best tube amp I've owned was an Aria Audio 350XL hybrid, designed by Mike Elliott of Counterpoint fame. Looking back, that thing had it all--but I sold it when I decided to get out of the hobby. I got back into the hobby several years ago, and my amps since then have been SS Codas. I use a modified S12.5 in my main system and CSi-B integrated in my second rig. I really like the Coda sound: a beautiful blend of SS speed and clarity married to a just-sweet-enough treble and midrange. The Class A 15.5 is also a fantastic amp if your speakers need that kind of juice. |
As a dyed in the wool tube fan--the ONLY amp would consider purchasing (under 30k) is the Wells Innomorata. I heard it with Salks in one system and Claravus in another. The closest to tubes I have ever heard. It's also a very nice looking amp IMHO. That's some encouraging news! What do you think... Innomorata, AVA Synergy 450 + AVA Tube Preamp, or DiaLogue Premium Integrated [HP or not HP?]. I'm wanting the liquid "in the room" three dimensional sound, without any loss of bass extension and slam, for both nominal and late night listening. |
Pleasantly surprised about Nelson Pass' Â First Watt J2 solid state amp. After 3 long days and a lot of hard work putting together a dedicated high end room, I had a new Cary 805 Anniversary Edition mono block that was bad out of the box. It was probably caused by a bad 300B tube and people at Cary is taking exceptional care of me on this matter. After coming this far with the build, I decided to grab my First Watt J2 to use in the install for the time being until my 805 comes back. The J2 is a great little amp and I wasn't expecting as much performance from it as I did, but Wow! I quickly realized how amazingly single ended it sounds for being solid state in this set up. In the 70s I had bought a Sony VFet amp (vertical field transistors) and at the time it was a long time favorite of mine for solid state until I fell in love with tubes. Nelson Pass found a use for these type of transistors and made some interesting and great little amps with his First Watt amplifier line. The J2 is absolutely magical with my 96db efficient speakers. |
On a whim, and as a change of pace from my VAC 300.1a, I picked up a used Plinius SA-103 last summer at a really good price from someone here on A’gon. May too good of a price: it was advertised as mint but arrived with a noisy right channel. Who knows, maybe it was jarred in shipping. Anyway, I listened to the amp for a month or so, and even with the noise I could tell it was very promising, if a little plump in the bottom and slightly closed in on top. So I contacted Frank Gazzo of Plinius USA (an extremely helpful fellow), who put me in touch with master tech Vince Galbo for repairs. Vince offered a full upgrade and repair package, replacing all caps and resistors with a selection he has refined over the course of a decade, improving the power supply, tightening tolerances, and other stuff. So I went for it. Not only did this upgrade fix the noise, it vastly improved the sound in both Class A and Class A/B (selectable with a button up front). The bottom became tighter and deeper with more tonality; the top opened up, with more delicacy and nuance; mids became more liquid; and everything is more coherent. Running in Class A, the stock SA-103 was a good SS amp. The Galbo-mod version, IMO, is a great SS amp that holds its own with my VAC. They sit next to each other in my rack, ready for the swapping of cables, and the Plinius actually gets more playing time. I’ve had some good SS amps in this system--Mac 501, Bryston 28B-SST2--and I still have an old Reference Line Silver Signature that I pop in now and then as another flavor. This modded Plinius is far better than the Mac or Bryston (no comparison, really--even the umodded SA-103 was better to my ears) and even outdoes the Class A Reference Line, itself an unsung hero. Vince was a pleasure to work with, too. In the end, I feel lucky to have received a noisy amp because I wouldn’t have found him otherwise. |
Right now I have only one amp to recommend, namely the H-Cat X-10 MkIII that just far exceeds any amp that I have ever heard. For many years, I had only tube amps and preamps. I loved featherweight 1.56 watt amps on very high efficiency speakers, usually with poor bass response. Larger tube amps for less efficient speakers always lacked the realism I heard with the low output tube amps. I ended my tube amp life with the Reimyo PAT-777 300B amp on Behold single driver speakers. I fell in love with the Tidal speakers and bought them. The Reimyo would drive them, but when I tried the LSA Statement amp, it was far superior. |
Sorry avdweeb-- been a while. I haven't heard the AVA components and, although I've heard Prima Luna at shows, it was not at length and not enough to form an opinion. I would say that if you pair the Wells up with a nice tube preamp, you will not be disappointed. I've heard it with high end solid state and tubes and it is unfailingly musical. The tube front will give it more dimensionality and liquidity. I liked it so much with the tube pre that I thought the system was all tube with exceptional grip. |
Sorry avdweeb-- No problem! I'm still struggling with this decision, and am trying to pin down my thoughts over here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/wells-audio-ava-synergy-primaluna-dialouge-premium-hp |
Here's a question for Tube Users. I love deep bass and have always (both tone controls and EQ whichever I had) bumped up the low end a bit. On the same hand, I'm not a fan of external Sub Woofers. One of the best things I love about my low end B&K St 140 is the low end and warmth. I've heard a few higher end tube systems (Macs, AR, Decware) that really have fantastic low end. Now I have heard some of the cheaper Chinese (Jolida. etc) and they seem to be "bass shy" flaoabt compared to the tube amps listed above and many SS amps. Now that could be the tube selection. I'm never owned a home stereo tube amp. Are there any other tube amps that come to mind that deliver outstanding low end? I'm sure there are many, it's just my experience has been 50/50 |
What makes me really smile is someone asking the question, what SS amp sounds like tubes? Of the SS amps that make me smile not because it is SS OR tubes but that it sounds like music is the Symphonic Line Kraftwerks, VERYÂ impressive and probably the most memorable of a handful of SS I could easily live with as it transcends any debate about the matter at hand, which brings the listener closer to the sound of real music in the reproduced realm. It seems remarkable to me that this line has not received more press as it has been around for a while but probably is less familiar to most American audiophiles. |
Been a long-term conrad-johnson fan, wanted to try SS amps to see if time to move in that direction to see if I can get the mid-range of a tube with the low-end control of a SS.  Got many different amps, to include the c-j MF-2250 that was reviewed as being voiced like their tube systems.  While the MF-2250 was Stereophile Class B rated, I was not impressed (was too "SS" vs. "tube").  After many evaluations, went back to tube systems albeit at higher price ranges (and used via Audiogon).  I did find one SS amp that had many of the tube like qualities I was looking for and subsequently picked: Monarchy Audio SM-70 MkII.  If someone liked tube-like sound but didn't want to bother with tubes, this pure Class A (as in amp design not Stereophile rating) would be my recommendation by far (and with factory direct pricing at ~$700 an amp, I would get two for use as monoblocks for stereo, and
multiple amps
for next HT upgrade to drive sound-surround). |
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