Tube amps under $7500


Ready to experiment with combinations never before (or not recently) tried. Step one requires a tube amp. Now looking at Prima Luna EVO 400 which sells for 5K. Any other tube amps I should consider in this price/feature range? Must come in silver with balanced input. For pairing experimentally with various tube and SS preamps. Efficient 4 ohm Legacy speakers (and the room/setup) are the constants.

 

hickamore

OP, early in this thread, @bluethinker recommended the Audio Hungary P200.  I’ve heard very good things about this company.  Am not sure their stuff tilts warm, but wanted to make sure it got your attention.  Build quality is superb; friend of mine is a dealer and loves their stuff.  And it meets all of your other criteria - price, balanced out, silver, 100w….

@hickamore 

one more thought:  in the manual for your speakers, there’s actually a pretty lengthy discussion of biamping, and combining tubes with SS.  In that context it references something called an “amp balancer” available from your Legacy dealer.  I couldn’t find anything else on the www about it, but you might want to reach out to your dealer.  

I wished I would had listened years ago when someone suggested to me MCintosh ,ARC or CJ as a preamp. I kiss a lot of frogs on my journey.Listen to the words of wisdom @ghdprentice ​​​​​​he is like the good cool uncle at the bbq .One of my biggest regrets is buying gear thinking that is just as good as what I really wanted . It's a reason why McIntosh,ARC and Cj gear is over 10 years old still demanding a decent price . 

Recently someone was crying about how hard it was to sell a Roque pre amp. Prima luma you see them for sale almost new all the time 

This sounds like a nice testimonial, if it were true. I will just pick on Mcintosh. 

Fact is right now on Canuck Audio Mart there are 27 listings for Mcintosh Pre-amps- just 2 examples for newer preamps:

  • 53 day old listing for a C2700: $12000 retail asking $6900
  • 153 day old C49 with DAC $9000 retail asking $5500. 

So yes, you are going to get as soaked selling a used Mcintosh pre as much as anything else, maybe more. 

At time of writing there are zero Primaluna Pre amp listings on Canuck Audiomart. 

(Yes, of course Mcintosh have been producing them for many more years and have sold a disproportionate amount compared to Primaluna- just providing a contrary viewpoint in favour of Primaluna)

@audition__audio OTL amps are out of the question for my speakers. I’m sure that with some, OTL amplification would be perfect.

@mdalton @larryi @darkblacksmoke Your insights come as a reminder that I am working with humble $10k speakers plus a modest amp upgrade budget. Need to forget bi-amping, leave my subs offline, choose the best one-chassis solution (more to this decision than pure SQ) and think more about what to do when my DAC dies.

 

@mclinnguy 

RE: McIntosh Resale Value

Like anything, certain models hold more value than others. Rolex is a strong analog for McIntosh in that regard. Undoubtedly which models and how much those models retain in value is impacted by the size and quality of the market in which they are marketed and sold. I just sold an MC302 in less than a week for close to what I bought it for new six years ago. But I'm in the US not Canada.

I certainly agree, however, that McIntosh resale value is often touted as some kind of golden absolute with no wrong choices, when it is anything but.