Lush and Romantic Tube Amps

Check out tubes4hifi.com for their amps. They are modern "minimalist" iterations of Dynaco amplifiers, with very high quality components. They can use 6550, KT88, KT90, KT120 output tubes; a 5U4 type rectifier, and 12AU7 driver tubes. Their amps are also available in kit form if that sort of satisfaction is for you.....I purchased my VTA ST-120 amp already assembled with the upgraded capacitors, and a stepped attenuator to use without a pre-amp.

The VTA ST-120 is a stereo amplifier that is well north of 70 WPC high current power with the KT120 tubes, Cost is $1,340 without tubes, and $1,695 with 6550 tubes.

The M-125 mono blocks are north of 150 WPC high current with KT120 tubes and are $2,900 per pair without tubes.....$3,650 with a 6550 tube set.

I run rather expensive Amperex 7308/6922/12AU7 driver tubes, with a Philips 5R4GYS rectifier, and Tung Sol KT-120 power tubes.

@atmasphere totally agree......Unless you can afford an Aavik integrated for 20K....a good tube preamp paired with a quality class D amplifier....is pure magic.....very immersive...sweet....lush......just musical.

@bluethinker 

Not sure what you mean by romantic and lush but to me amps with exposed tubes are romantic if not steampunk!

You have a lot of great suggestions.  I use Manley Snappers and i am very happy with them.  They are dead quiet and musical.  Their aesthetics could be polarizing to some.  I think they are cool!

Can anyone provide a working definition of "neutral?"  In other words, a point from which we can agree is indeed sonically neutral?

Neutral equipment makes no editorial of the signal. The Absolute Sound magazine gets its name from the idea that the musical source is the absolute sound; neutral would be exact reproduction of that without coloration of either warmth or brightness- just the music.

Establishing a reference quickly becomes an item of concern. The only way I know to deal with this is to make high quality recordings of musical events at which you were there, so you know how its supposed to sound.

What you are looking for doesn’t exist, at least not at 75 watts. When you start pushing tubes beyond 50 Watts or so they get much more solid state sounding (less second order harmonics). You’ll lose that single ended lush sound, especially with a neutral speaker like the Buchardts. Big horns and a SET amp will do it. Cornwalls, La Scala, Altec A5 etc. get big speakers for a big room and pair with a 300b SET amp. Twittering Machines has a video on YouTube with the Cornwalls paired to an 8 watt 300b integrated in a 35’x40’ room. Pretty impressive.

If you insist on keeping the Buchardts, try pairing with a monster class A SS amp. Something like a vintage Krell to keep costs reasonable.