2. amps-preamps
  3. 185935-166559

I'm going to buy my first tube amp. I need honest blunt opinions

 

 

Recommendations please. I am thinking of dipping my toes in the tube amp water.  For the longest time I have been tempted to buy a modest tube amp to run my Monitor Gold 300’s at 90db.

I’ve been toying around, researching the different characteristics of SET, class A, class AB, B Ultralinear tube amps for months. It’s a bit much. As far as the reviewers go, they are too vague. They are afraid to be upfront honest.

Sources are a Parasound JC 3+, a Innous ZENith Mk3, and a Oppo going to a Benchmark DAC, then all go to a Benchmark LA 4 preamp that will feed the new amp.

My room is 16 x16. The speakers have a 12-foot spread. I sit 14 feet back, so it’s not that big of a room.

I have narrowed it down to four candidates.

A used Canary Audio M90 300B Tube Amp at 24RMS,300B push-pull stereo triode Class A $4,000

A used Jadis Orchestra Black, 40 RMS, Class B $4,000

A 16-year-old, Used Cary Audio Six Pac Monoblock’s, 50 triode watts A/AB $2,000

A new Dynaco by WILL VINCENT 35RMS Ultralinear $2,300

 

marshinski15
pindac's avatar
pindac
2,864 posts
 

There are very well established Valve users having contributed.

I will post a Copy/Paste of a post I made in a thread recently.

_____________________________________________________________

" I have a System using Valves in Pre and Power Amp's for many years.
I also have other devices with Valves.
I was given advice in my earliest days, to not leave a device using Valves unattended for more than a short period of time.
This is a discipline I have maintained, and to date have not had a incident that would be of a concern, so have been quite fortunate.
I would not be the one responsible for bringing Valves into a Newbies System, this this would have to be the system owners choice.
I would definitely encourage the system owner to learn about Valves pro's/cons prior to making a decision. 

My second system is a design to be used to play Music to fill the house with sound and not really need to be sat in front of.
For this reason Valves are not even being considered in the set up. "

bmontani
193 posts
 

Check out VAC.

donavabdear's avatar
donavabdear
507 posts
 

There is no app that allows amps to match up to speakers, someone would have to have extensive knowledge of the crossovers, voice coil, drivers, internal cables, internal components of the speaker and the same type of knowledge of the Amp. 

Tube amps are a pain they are like that beautiful girl in high school that you can't stay away from even though you know better. 

macguy's avatar
macguy
33 posts
 

I have a Cary Audio Rocket 88 no intention of selling it.  If you are new to tubes, BE CERTAIN to test your output tubes regularly.  ALL of my problems with tube amps were because I didn't test regularly.  If you don't want to test, then buy new output tubes yearly. Sorry, there is no easy way out with vacuum tubes.

moose89's avatar
moose89
182 posts
 

Definitely bring it all CLOSE IN. You won’t be happy until… small 7’ triangle. We all have great visions of people coming over to our house and showing off what we have in relation to sound but 99% of the time it’s gonna be you and your system by yourselves. If you have a spouse or partner Great. Other than that it’s intimate and it’s low volume to really appreciate, concentrated, listening, and to break down what your speakers are offering. Acoustics are terrible and I once had a large room like yours with 20 foot ceilings, and it sounded like I was in the gymnasium.

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