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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
 
Addressing room acoustics ( before or after) is as important as what your choice in equipment will be to accent your room in sound and the bling you seek . The info in this thread is massive and the opinions are many. You are obviously hooked again . Go to the show and listen and listen ( gik will be there too) . Take a rough layout of your room . Let your ears and pocket shape your choices. Some may say bentley, you may perfer a Mercedes in the end. The one thing about this hobby is if you bought a 100k amp , some wont like it ..but do you ? Thats all that matters. 
The real question here is how many albums have you bought yet : ).
I can attest to small changes effecting a room . I took out a coffee table in mine the otherday and it wont be going back . I got a little leather cube  footstool/table 14"x14" lol
terry9
2,348 posts
 
About your curtain, John.

I don't think that will work for you - the curtain will simply absorb all sound, and may make the room sound dead. In my experience, two under appreciated techniques can work wonders: wall texture is very useful (think bas bas bas relief), as are non-parallel walls. YMMD
oleschool's avatar
oleschool
722 posts
 
I painted my room in textured cement block paint , (drywall on 6" thick timber frame), it created almost like a smooth 50 grit sandpaper( it has sand in it, or add it in ) . Then i repainted it with laytex . It looks cool and has a small pebble texture .. but gik changed the game in my med.room . I sent them pics and they helped alot .. bryan i think . I would be hesitant with curtains on  one side . Like i said before many companies can print on there panels . Anything you want , thats all you..if i had unlimited money the first call i would make is to a designer, studio eng. to design a room with proper acoustics.then an electrician.  So for me i would be seriously considering what and how your new setup and choices will look sound and interact with your b&b..
 thats why i would go room, electrical, spkrs, power ,tt
just me 
enjoy the show
inna
7,296 posts
 
Cottguy, I suggest you start a thread specifically asking about tube amps, SETs and others. There are many here who have very different tube amps, they might be able to assist you if you state clearly what you would like to achieve and the kind of music you listen to most. It is easy to drown in all that. In any case, whatever you eventually choose will be a compromise, especially considering that your audiophile funds are not unlimited. If they were I could suggest getting Lamm ML2 monoblocks with Lamm preamp and Lamm phono and be set.
Not everyone at all, even with almost unlimited funds, prefers SETs overall but there are those who swear by their 1watt/ch, 8 watt/ch etc. SET amps. Atma-Sphere amps have high reputation, if you are concerned about noise they might make, try to talk to the owners of those amps and also to Ralph of Atma-Sphere himself.
There are also many Japanese companies making tube amps.
Whatever it is, good tube sound does cost quite a lot but not necessarily too much. Glorious midrange is great but that’s not all. That’s the reason why the Lamm that I mentioned is considered such an achievement.
inna
7,296 posts
 
I'll just mention another brand that might be of interest to you - Allnic.
They have three integrated amps including one 12.5 watt/ch 300B SET. No phono, as I understand, but I may be wrong, maybe they have an optional one. The suggested retail is $6.9k which might be over what you are planning to spend, but you could probably get something off this figure. I am not familiar with it, just know that this Korean company has a high reputation among some in the know.
Tube sound has quite a range, you just have to clearly understand your preference. You might actually like both VAC and Allnic, in addition to others. 
I said it once somewhere here on the forum but I think it would be relevant to repeat. In my opinion, the single biggest mistake in choosing the components is to spend less than needed. I myself made this mistake couple of times. And the second biggest mistake is to spend more than needed. I never made this kind of mistake, as far as I know.
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