2. amps-preamps
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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
oleschool's avatar
oleschool
722 posts
 
I have had quite a few maggies and sold them for a number of yrs . There are imo very few spkrs that can compete with maggies in the proper situation for the bucks . They like power and are 4ohms . I loved my mg3a cj tubes pre and power , biamped with a krell , few other bottom end ss amps also . Pair a planer, tube combo properly with subs imo and your wow factor is thru the roof imo and with a good  vinyl rig and ya better get ready it will be impressive to hear and see . Your room may work pretty well ,tympani are big boys .. I can say you will be spending big bks even used to get tube power with big maggies . Opinions opinions but 150 would be the bottom end in a large room .. Cool thing about your setup is they will throw sound in both directions . My current room is too small for big maggies or i would have them ..
good luck cotton
i’ve watched this from the start for you and its been fun to read along .
frogman
7,475 posts
 
****Cool thing about your setup is they will throw sound in both directions .**** 

Excellent point that I meant to include in my comments.  Cottguy will be placing his speakers well into the room in either direction and that feature could be a big plus.
oleschool's avatar
oleschool
722 posts
 
Maggies love to breathe , there bass will be crisp in this setup , couple subs , (whole different argument lol) .. Everyone has there opinions . I hope thats the biggest lesson here , take advice then go listen and make your informed decision as rashly as possible. Lol  i think sometimes we can steer the op in ten directions . : )
frogman
7,475 posts
 
oleschool, in the loft space that I mentioned and with a listening position about 16-18 feet from the speakers, I was able to achieve (measured) a pretty solid 26hz.  With no subs!  The soundstage was absolutely huge and very stable and well defined.  My MG3A's were highly modified; but, still....I would not have believed bass response like that from Maggies.
inna
7,297 posts
 
It might be that the OP steered himself clear of us. He is not talking.
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