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Tubes?

I have Revel Salon 2 speakers. Sensitivity is about 85 db. and 4 ohms. They are power hungry speakers. Currently, I am driving them with McIntosh 601's and a McIntosh solid state preamp. I was look looking at a pair of McIntosh MC2301. They are tube amps rated at 300 watts into 2 - 8 ohm loads. I listen to all types of music (sometimes at very high levels). I never run out of power with the 601's, but I am very intrigued with tubes. This may be a misconception, but I remember some friends who played guitar saying, tube watts were louder than solid state? Perhaps this is not really true or not true regarding home stereo. Perhaps the best idea is to keep the 601's and get a good tube preamp?                          Thanks, Dave 
tobor007
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@audition__audio   +1

It is ridiculously stupid to suggest that tube watts are greater than SS watts.  Tube amps sound "better" however to me and it's excatly about the even order harmonics, soft clipping,  and the fact tubes have more linear transfer functions than transistors, so tube amplifiers usually need and use much less negative feedback.

Who makes this stuff up about tube watts being greater than SS watts???  lol  Maybe it's how we define greater.....in euphonics.
noromance's avatar
noromance
10,177 posts
 
Glass watts versus sand watts?
About as different in weight as a ton of feathers and a ton of iron.
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
I don’t know how ridiculous or stupid it is. But a WATT is WATT.
I guess the topic would be are all WATTs created equal?

I don’t know, are they? I (ME) think they are...

A Watt is a Watt! I Recon...

Crap, I confused myself, It's not fair. I'm still under the mind control of my buddy Sam.
That dog gone embedded message he keep sending, keeps me coming back for more
crazy talk. Maybe outer space WATTS are different... Just sayin'  :-)

Regards
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
hopefully the op can sort through another typical a-gon thread, lots of pretty good advice, some heavy handedness in how it is delivered, some getting caught up with semantics and missing the point

i suggest op take away the following:

1 - you have definitely chosen pretty inefficient, relatively hard to drive speakers - if you like them and will run with them, you will need to match your amplifier carefully, most likely a beefy solid state unit to deliver alot of power/current to do the job well esp. if you like to play pretty loud

2 - most tube amps will struggle with driving your speakers, in absolute volume and in bass control -- tube amps just can’t match ss equivalents in bass control and slam, you need to go to megabuck tube amps to get very good bass with your speakers

3 - tube pre feeding ss power amp likely the best solution if you want some tube dimensionality and sweetness to the sound, that is IF you value that

4 - tube watts vs ss watts and the semantics associated with that line of discussion is pretty much irrelevant
ditusa's avatar
ditusa
2,137 posts
 
@ tobor007, Keep the revel's, buy the mc-2301 amps.  You will love the sound..
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