Solid state to tube
I have been a solid state guy since my start in this hobby. Over the years I have built a few systems and have used mainly older YBA seperates pre and power for my front end.
I also have a pair of musetex MT101 mono blocks from Meitner audio which I use as well.
My speakers are reference 3a lintegre
I am thinking of moving to a all tube system
. However I have little experience
I have looked at Quick Silver and a small boutique builder called Will Vincent. Have not heard anything yet. I thought I might inquire here first for any suggestions from tube savvy members
@emrofsemanon - probably not. I'd think you'd be the only one who could decide that as everybody else will have varying opinions which may or may not line up with your response. There are no 'absolutes'. Find someplace where you can listen to tube gear and bring along some music of various genres, and it should be a fun experiment.... |
The Backert line of preamps are all absolute gems. They use two 12AU7 tubes which are auto biased . Tube rolling is easy and the results of rolling with this preamp are palpable. Decware, despite the wait makes wonderful low power tube amps. Wyetech Labs is in the process of selling their remaining stock of ferociously incredible SET mono blocks due to the death of founder Roger Hebert. These are all tube based products very deserving of investigation. |
+1 on the Quicksilvers. I have the mid mono monoblocks. They are wonderful and have no problem driving my 90db efficient KLH 5s to fairly high listening levels. They also worked very well with some Snell Towers I had before. I find they have plenty of slam and in fact were better in this regard and have better bass than a Belles 150a power amp and a Luxman integrated that I previously owned...both with over 100W per channel solid state. It provides wonderful bank for the buck. Also easy to try different tubes. Want slam...run KT88s.... want a lusher presentation,,,,run EL34s which is what they are voiced for. Also they are very well built and have been utterly reliable over the 5 years I have owned them which is more than I can say for some Cary and Audio Research gear I had.... albeit a long time ago. Some of the most musical amps I have owned in over 50 years in the hobby. They are keepers. BTW I also run a tube preamp, Conrad Johnson. |
Have the speakers ever been recapped? If not, start there. 20 year old caps are well past their sell by date. Replace ALL with polypropylene or PTFE. Going to a dealer is a waste of time as they do not have your speakers, cables, room or the rest of the system. You might hear differences, but they will likely not travel home. If the speakers are ported, some tube amps may not mate well due to the impedance curve.
It's not really excellent stuff. See VTA M-125. People have all kinds of problems with them and have written after ZERO support from Tubes4FiHi. If you complain on their forum, they axe your account. A lot of their advice is just plain wrong! |
