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Finally stepping into the hobby after 30 years of watching from the sidelines

Ok, so I hope you are all ok with a longwinded post from a first time user of the forum.  I have been obsessed with vinyl and tubes since my dad played records for me as a 5 year old.  My wife and I are finally in a place that we can take the leap into the scene.  We want to grow our system over time and may even create 2-3 systems along the way as we have a bed and breakfast where we want to make analog part of the theme. 

We have made up our mind that our first speakers will be Vandersteen 2CE sigs.  That is about as far as we have gotten.  We definitely want to power them with tubes and have very little idea of where to start.  Obviously the mainstream option would be a Mcintosh mc275 and our local HiFi salesman would LOVE to sell us a pair of those.  However, we know that there are several cheeper/better options out there and would love some input from the board.  We'd like to keep the first amp under $3,000, but we aren't locked into that.  Keep in mind that we are ok starting with a single amp and then adding a second one along the way to mono them.  Also, we would love some help with a table/arm/cartridge!  One with an integrated phono stage is fine to start with and we would again be open to upgrading and adding a stand alone phono stage later on.  

We will be doing some electrical work soon to run a 40 amp fuse to the BnBs espresso machine and would be open to setting up a dedicated line for our main system at that time so that we can have clean power.  Has any one had any experience with this?  Any ideas or recommendations that you may have would be a big help here! 

Thank you all in advance, and we are really excited to finally be part of the scene! 
128x128cottguy
inna
7,296 posts
 
I think, for the OP the most important thing is to have a full tube chain and then choose the speakers that work well with it, not the other way around. SS is out of the question here, irrelevant, so is hybrid. I understand this approach, it is not the most common and more difficult, but just as legitimate. I could do it either way, especially if I wanted to use SET which I don't unless it is Lamm, Wavac, Ypsilon etc.
He is not chasing resolution, great dynamics and tremendous tight bass. The man wants good tube sound, why don't you stop recommending what you might do, work within his paradigm if you can.
As for the source, yeah, at least as important as speakers, that's why I kind of gently suggested considering Nottingham in the under $5k new category, with more or less neutral sounding MM cartridge.
terry9
2,348 posts
 
Trans-Fi Salvation TT with magnetic suspension, 20 lb platter and air bearing tone arm, $3300. New. Beat that.
frogman
7,472 posts
 
Inna, his "paradigm" includes Vandersteens; he has decided those are the ones.  Why, then, do you recommend other speakers?  This is not a contest and different approaches are educational.  I stand by my suggestions.  
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@cottguy Well, if nothing else you have discovered that audiophiles these days are passionate about our hobby and take the advice we give here seriously.

In the ever increasingly important internet marketplace, user reviews can be very helpful. Countless purchases I’ve made from Amazon have been strongly influenced by user reviews. I find most people to be sincere in their opinions as they value the integrity of others’ reviews as well.

If your want tubes, then stick to it. Now it is just about what tube pieces to consider, audition and then purchase. After that its cable time. You can choose cables that work well with your system and provide you the sound that’s true to you. Finally, don’t forget vibration isolation for all of your gear, most especially the tube stuff. That’s when the real "art" of system synergy comes into play.

Have at it!

oleschool's avatar
oleschool
722 posts
 
Ive always been intrigued by the trans fi it's a table i would like to see in person . And would be one of the ones to audition in the upgrade list from my classic 1 . 
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