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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! 
cottguy
cottguy's avatar
cottguy OP
56 posts
 
@mapman I am in 100% agreement with the fact that tubes might not be the best choice for the Vandys and our budget. They are definitely not the most efficient speakers. This is why we have become more open minded about the speaker choice as we are 100% committed to running tubes. (Sorry to flip flop every one)

Since our space is so large, we have begun to consider running or eventually upgrading to 1 or even 2 subs. This will probably happen down the line. So this opens up a new dilemma with my amp choice...eventually getting signal to the subs.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,793 posts
 
Have you heard those Vandersteens off a good quality higher powered modern Class D amp?

I’d be willing to bet set up well and done right the results would be stellar and hard to beat at any comparable price (with tube or SS amps) if budget is a factor, especially in a larger room. The Vandersteen’s use larger than many (nowadays) bass drivers for their price which is essential for best sound in a larger space.

If building around tube amplification, I would still not give up on the Vandy’s especially if adding subs down the road is an option. You’d just need subs that provides the right crossover functionality to blend in with the Vandys. Should not be hard to find.

Also I have historically heard many praise Vandy’s running off ARC tube amps. I can see where the ARC tube sound (detailed, clean, not overly warm) would mesh well with Vandys. For me Id think good modern Class D would be better though for sure.

I guess I’m wondering what you are looking for soundwise if anything that initially drove you towards Vandersteen? Knowing that will make it easier to find good alternatives for use with a tube amp. My guess is though that real alternatives speakers to match Vandersteen off a tube amp may be larger and more expensive but it all depends on the room and what you seek in teh end sound wise. Tekton and Spatial Audio are two brands I know of that offer a lot of more tube amp friendly speaker for the buck. Klipsch of course is another.
inna
7,923 posts
 
A few thoughts. Since bass is important, I suggest paying even more attention to the turntable, table itself but also of course arm and cartridge. Tables are not created equal in how they do bass. Integrating subs is rarely an easy thing, two subs are better, active subs will have solid state electronics not tube so you would have both tube and solid state amplification in the system, which may be fine and may be not quite, could be an incoherent and bizarre arrangement, you would have to consult with the professionals and listen to demos.
Since you are becoming more open to other speaker brands, DeVore and Coincident are worth auditioning if you can. I will even mention Wilson, though it is something very different.
I would also speculate that you might actually be a VAC fan without knowing it yet.
Good sound is quite expensive even if you buy everything used. Good sound in bigger rooms is double that, at least.
frogman
7,507 posts
 
Mapman makes a lot of sense and mirrors some of what I said re amplification.  Cottguy, you are being very reasonable about the way you are pursuing this project; good for you.  This question is not meant to challenge you in any way and you, nor anyone, need to justify any decision made with your pocket book.  I am genuinely interested in knowing what it is about tubes that makes you so set on having them.  Regards.
cottguy's avatar
cottguy OP
56 posts
 
@inna Do you think the Spacedeck will suffice?  Also, I just checked out DeVore and Coincident...beautiful looking speakers.  I'll look deeper into them tonight.  I know VAC is a phenominal company, I'll just have to find a decent used unit.  The new stuff is out of reach for now.  

@frogman We want to go with tubes for 3 main reasons.  I have been in love with them since I was a kid.  Personally, I think the sound that you get is more musical, cozy, warm, what ever you want to call it.  Sometimes people who like tubes struggle to put it into words.  The third reason is that they look cool as hell.  Remember, we are running a bed and breakfast.  Any one can do this and make a little bit of money and people could be a little happy that they saved money on a high end hotel and had a clean comfortable bed to sleep in.  Or, we can deliver a unique experience that they will remember for ever.  We want to deliver the latter.  A simple box on a rack doesn't really scream unique.  But glowing tubes when the lights are low does.  Personally, the last reason isn't why I want to run tubes, but it doesn't hurt the image of our business.    
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