2. amps-preamps
  3. 152556-1316

Looking for a small tube amp (possibly integrated tube amp)... low power, nice sound

System changes and very efficient speakers has me on the hunt for a new, low-power tube amp.

I am now running an upgraded pair of Tekton Double Impacts (4-ohm).  Front end is a Bluesound Node 2i streaming Tidal only - no other sources, fed into an Eastern Electric tube DAC (NOS Telefunken 12AU7 loaded) via Wireworld Starlight COAX dig cable.  Power is a Balanced Power BPT-1 with all LessLoss DFPC Original/Signature power cords throughout.  All IC's & speakers cables are Clear Day.  I have a B&K ST-55.2 SS amp with the "gain" dials on the back set to about 30% and am running RCAs directly into it (no preamp).  The issues that I have been having with preamps is the gain... many have 20db or more gain and even with this small B&K amp, the usable volume range is TINY.  So, I plan on keeping the SS B&K amp setup as is for now and look for a fairly affordable tube amp or integrated tube amp for when I want to listen to low-level stuff (jazz, vocals, easy listening, etc.).  It would be nice to have the ability to switch between triode & pentode or UL on the amp I suppose.  Budget is maybe up to $1,500 or so.  Based on the 4-ohm load of the Tektons and the output of the B&K amp, I figure at most, I am using around 40 watts and that is playing it INCREDIBLY loud.  So a tube amp maybe around 15-25 watts per side or so?  The Node 2i does have a very smart way to adjust/control the volume in the BlueOS app on the tablet, so I can work around things a bit, but I do not need anywhere near even 50 watts for this tube amp.

Since I already have the small solid-state B&K which can HAMMER out the tunes all day long, I am looking for a warm, smooth tube amp of generally low power.

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.
audiofreak32
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,132 posts
 
There is a real nice used Music Reference RM-10 Mk.2 listed at $1400 on U.S. Audiomart right now. 35w/ch from a single pair of EL84's/ch. If I hadn't just bought myself one exactly like it, I'd buy it myself. 
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@bdp24  +1 on the Music Reference.  That one looks very tempting to me!
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,231 posts
 
Ditto on the Music Reference RM-10.  I 
almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
While by all accounts I’ve ever seen the RM-10 MkII is a fantastic amp, after taking a quick look at the specs and descriptions of the OPs components, and doing some quick calculations, I believe he would have more of a gain problem with it than he presently has.

First, as far as I can tell the RM-10 MkII does not provide level controls, while the OP has stated that ...

I have a B&K ST-55.2 SS amp with the "gain" dials on the back set to about 30% and am running RCAs directly into it (no preamp).... and even with this small B&K amp, the usable volume range is TINY.

I calculated that the gain of the RM-10 MkII when using its 4 ohm taps is about 7 db less than that of the B&K amp, but I strongly suspect that the 7 db gain reduction is considerably less than is presently being provided by the level controls of the B&K amp at the 30% setting that is being used. To provide some context, on a preamp having a single-turn rotary volume control 7 db usually corresponds to something like 45 degrees of rotation, except at very low settings where volume changes occur more rapidly as the control is rotated.

Also, I thought of suggesting inserting Rothwell attenuators into the inputs of the amp, to reduce the overall gain. However if the DAC in question is the MiniMax Tube & Solid State DAC Supreme, or a similar Eastern Electric model, its specified output impedance is **extremely** high (22K tube; 10K solid state), which would make it a poor match for the input impedance of Rothwell and probably all other inline attenuators. (Rothwells have much higher impedances than several other makes I have come across). And for that matter the 22K output of the DAC which apparently is being used, as well as the 10K output, are not good matches for the 33K input impedance of the B&K amp, at least on paper.

I have no other amplifier suggestions to offer in the OPs price range, but I thought I should point out these facts.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

edcyn
1,876 posts
 
I'm lovin' my Primaluna 30 watt integrated.  It's worth at least a look.
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