Food for thought and thanks for the response Atmasphere. Vu's tube preferences for the K's were 300B's and 6L6's. That conversation and your comments bring something like the Canary M-90 to mind. Anyone had experience with that one? -Scott
Looking To Match A Tube Amp With A Pair Of Audio Note AN-K/Spe
I'm the original owner of a pair of K's which I've had for about 9 months. I really enjoy them and they're placed in a 30 x 12 room with a sofa bordering 10' of that 30. I listen about 10-12 feet away. Speakers toed in accordingly. Pushed by a Pass XA 30.8. Preamp is a Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme. I'm overall pretty pleased with this set up but am searching for greater punch and clarity in the midrange frequencies at lower volume levels. I'd like opinions on 2A3 or 300B SET's or EL 34 or 84 push pull as a means of addressing this. Thanks for input. -Scott
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I am a BIG fan of the 6L6 tube, but, that would mean a pushpull amp. The KT 66 is a very similar sounding tube. Both have a rich, harmonically dense sound without sounding murky or sluggish or soft on dynamics (some of my personal issue with some 300B amps). I love real or clones of Western Electric 124 amps (350B tube, which is the very expensive equivalent of the 6L6 tube) running the 6L6 tube, and other 6L6 vintage amps, like some RCA amps and Northern Electric amps. There are not that many current production 6L6 amps because they put out less power than roughly comparable tube types (e.g., EL34, KT88, 6550) which makes it hard to market a 6L6 amp to buyers who seem to only recognize power as a quality factor. |
That Sansui integrated looks terrific, and with Hashimoto trannies, it probably sounds great too (I have not heard this amp). I know a young man who has heard various Western 124 clone amps (Deja Vu Audio) using vintage transformers and liked the sound so much that he planned on designing and building his own clone. Unfortunately, he got to hear the same clone amp with the real deal Western Electric 171C transformer. After that experience, he put aside the idea of building a clone because the model with the real output transformers sounded so much better, but, those transformers would make the build too expensive. That is how it goes in audio, something sounds really nice and you love it until you hear something better and that spoils your joy over the lesser item. |
@larryi … Unfortunately So, unless one goes OTL with say one of Ralph’s superb amplifiers the Quality of Iron is King |
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