Tube Amp Suggestions


I have had the audio affliction for about 10 years. I am finally ready to venture into the world of tube amps and would appreciate any ideas my fellow audiophiles might have. My current set up is theta basic II with a camelot uther IV going directly into a pass labs aleph 5 and audio physic virgo II speakers. All wiring is tara labs air 1. Budget is $2,000 to 3,000 new or used.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
sgunther
I have sent the paper to Siegfried Linkwitz for his opinion.

Scanning the Conclusion it appears that he does not necessarily take the postion specs are not useful for evaluation.

But he does infer the premise that listening is subjective so 'whatever 'sounds' good to you is good'. As opposed to the more scientific approach that much can be done to more accurately replicate the live performance in all its accoustical subtelty and nuance in recording and playback.

I will let you know if I get an opinion from SL.

How about the link issue?
So you have no opinions of your own? You must follow Linkwitz like a lemming????

And as for your remark about the president, your way of thinking.....or not thinking, made me know right away you were a liberal. You would rather someone else made up your mind for you. Makes sense now...... Go back to your home theater amp, you deserve it.

Oz
Ozzy62, I have no doubt that with the cultist mentality that Didactically displays, he would have been the first one in line to gulp down a cup of Kool-Aid at Jonestown!
An interesting thread indeed and I'm sure the original poster ,Sgunther, really appreciates the squabble ;-) but I feel I MUST put in my two cents.
I can appreciate the opinions of Didactically as I have a friend who feels the same way. He is an engineer who is an audiophile and looks a lot at the figures represented by manuf. specs and does not feel that tubes can possibly portray a sonic duplicate of the actual event.I can agree with this as I'm sure many can.
However neither can solid state. The whole industry is flawed from source(studio) to final destination (our ears!). I'm sure that if all recordings were made the same there would not be the audio industry we have today. Certainly not the variety of equipment. It's obvious that nobody hears exactly the same and what we do hear is some form of generalization of the sonic event. The only thing we can do is tailor the sound to be pleasing to ourselves whether through the use of tubes or SS. If accuracy was the true goal there really would only be a handfull of recordings we could listen to as most of the sonic garbage starts at the studio.
I recently went from SS (Ayre) to tube (ARC) and the difference in sound is vastly different. My wife and I both enjoyed the ARC in more ways than we did the Ayre. Not that the Ayre is bad, I'm sure that many people would enjoy it more BUT to OUR ears the ARC simply sounded more pleasing. I won't use the word accurate on either amp as I never attended the original studio event for anything in my CD or vinyl collection so I have no point of refrence to grade playback against. The ARC was just more satisfying and friendly. The tubes may be colored and introduce thier own signature to the sound but it is more pleasing than the nature of solid state, but hey, it keeps me listening to the music.
I hope one day soon to hear the Linkwitz speakers as I think it represents new steps towards music reproduction. I also hope it colors the music in a way that is pleasing to the ear!
Why do you care what I think, or even whether I think, and why are you so angry? I know it does not have anything to do with me.

You also sound like the President. If you challenge what he thinks you are not patriotic. To critique a Republican does not make you a Liberal, or anything else.

Lets discuss 'audio'. That is why we are here, is it not? Otherwise call Dr Phil. He can help you with your personal problems.