I might add I am leaning towards the Dynakit ST-35 for 3 reasons. It has more power, 17w vs 2w, it's a NJ company and i could drive to get it, no shipping risk, AND it was favorably mention by @atmasphere , which carries a lot of weight with me :-)
To Tube or not to Tube, that is the question
I've been building a collection of hifi equipment with an ear to sampling the major families of tech and their characteristic sounds. One thing I don't have is a tube amp, unless you count my Rogue Sphinx. I like DIY if the final product is of good quality and design. I'm not averse to used either. Budget range is $1000-2000.
Can anyone suggest a tube amp, either power or integrated that would bring a nice sound flavor to my sandbox and not break the bank. OR do you think the Sphinx and the Pass amps pretty well serve up most of what is to be had in terms of tubey goodness and maybe this is not a worthwhile venture?
Here is what I have got in the way of speakers to play with:
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KEF LS50 |
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Tangent RS4 |
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Klipsch RP-160 |
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DIY Lii F6/Caintuck |
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DIY Lii F15 (under construction) |
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AR 2ax |
And here is the current line up of amps:
Rogue Sphinx
ClassD Audio Mini Gan 5
DIY Firstwatt F6
DIY Pass ACA (2)
Onkyo TX-6000 Receiver
Thanks in advance for your opinion.
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I don't know what year Brimar's I am using I will have to check. I got them from a friend who had a few extra pairs. They are probably around the 50's or so but NOS I love the Sphinx V3 but I happened upon the Orchard Audio tour and like his amp so I bought one. The Rogue is temporary as a preamp. It will stay in my inventory not getting rid of it. Just deciding on a preamp for the Gan FeT. I had the Mini Gan 5 but it was defective and so was the second one he sent to me. I also tried the Gan 400 from Peachtree but the Orchard won out in the end. You have to hear it compared to the others. I also own the Willsenton R8 you mentioned above. Another great amp. I ordered it direct from China Hifi and saved like 400 bucks and still had it in 4 days. They come from a warehouse in California, same as place as if you ordered from Amazon. If you look at my systems page, you can see what I have going on LOL. And it's all a keeper. To me that is |
@bruce19 The advantage this amp has over the ST70 is twofold. First, the output transformers (if they are the same design as the original) have better performance. The second advantage is a bit harder to explain but I'll try: Like the ST70 this amp uses feedback. A common problem which this amp also has is that the point where the feedback is applied isn't linear, which means that the feedback signal gets distorted before it can do its job of correction. So it adds distortion of its own. However, the ST70 uses a pentode for this task, where the ST70 uses a much more linear triode. This means the feedback signal is less distorted and so more able to do its job. So overall its a more musical amplifier design since there is less higher ordered harmonic distortion.
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- 21 posts total