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Picking a Tube integrated amp

Hey all. Trying to figure out my amp situation and am looking at a few integrated to upgrade to. 

I currently have a McIntosh integrated and want to move to tubes. I have the vivid v1.5speakers and a Clearaudio Concept. Looking at the following:

—Primaluna Dialogue premium or HP.
—Audio Research VSi60
—Octave v40SE

Question...does the AR still hold up? It’s likely it will be a used model, but curious if it’s still competing with the others I listed. Any others to consider?  

Thanks!


 
128x128rubytuesday
rmasoni
15 posts
 
The Pathos Acoustics Inpol2 is in a totally different league than all the above integrateds mentioned.  Pure class A, balanced from input to output, uses tubes for input voltage gain, MOSFETS for output current gain. First introduced in 2006, it is still produced today and remains Pathos' flagship integrated amp!
tak1's avatar
tak1
24 posts
 
Also pure class A is the Line Magnetic 518ia Integrated Vacuum Tube Amplifier .... 845 output tubes .... 22 wpc into 8 but your Vivid speakers with an 89 dB sensitivity should be fine ... and your speakers are closer to the 4 ohm load in the lower octaves (bass). Unless you listen to very load levels, this is a wonderful integrated but @ $4,500.
crwindy
121 posts
 
There is a thread with people having trouble with Line Magnetic customer service. At their price point, I would probably be buying used. Any thoughts?
psickerson
97 posts
 
I have the PrimaLuna Dialog HP. Go for the HP.
Troublefree,  looks awesome, sounds spectacular.  If the EL34 power tubes ever die, which will be a long time,  I’ll think about maybe puttting in the KT150 Power Pickles. 

I put in 2 Millard cv4003 in the front 2 spots.



psickerson
97 posts
 
@rubytuesday I understated Turing off speakers after a short listen.  I did the same with some 7,500 B&W bookshelf’s.

i would urge you to listen to some Aerial Acoustic speakers. I have the 5t’s.   You won’t turn them off until around 2am.  
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