I have JBL studio speakers and my Conrad Johnson CAV45 S2 tube amp pairs REALLY well with them and sounds delightful.
Looking for 50-100 watts of Tube Power (give or take) for my JBL 4349s
I’ve been looking at new and used 50-100 wpc power amps in the $5000 range to drive my JBL 4349s. I don’t have any experience in this price or power bracket when it comes to tubes, and could use some reccomendations.
Here are the amps I’ve been researching (the usual suspects I assume):
Rogue Stereo 100
Cary CAD-120s Mk2
Audio Research Reference 150SE
Audio Research VT80SE
Carver Crimson 275
Various vintage Corad Johnson amps
I’d love to hear why people would choose one of the amps from this list, or what else I should consider that isn’t on the list. I don’t have a preamp yet but will probably try a Benchmark la4 first.
For context, my main amp right now is a Torii Jr, but I also use the 4349s with a Muzishare X7 and a Denon PMA-1700NE. I love the Torii Jr and will continue to use it, but would occasionally like more power. The Muzishare is fine, but I want something of better quality.
My musical tastes are all over the place: rock, pop, jazz, world, electronic, classical. I listen to a lot of symphonic/orchestral music and would like more power to handle the dynamics, but prefer the soundstaging of tubes.
Thanks in advance for the recommendations!
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Take a look at offerings from Aric Audio. I’ve owned the Transcend Push Pull for 14 months and it is excellent. With KT150 tubes, you get a stiff 65w of Class A in UL mode. It also takes KT120, KT88, and EL34 with respectively diminishing power. And you can run all in triode if you wish. VAC also makes excellent gear. I owned a Phi 300.1a for five years and still use a Phi Beta preamp, which is stellar. While I never had the chance to compare the 300.1a directly to the Aric, my aural memory, suspect though it may be, tells me I prefer the Aric. Sold the VAC but have no plans to sell the Aric. And it's a bargain. |
@pdreher i don’t recall if you mentioned this before, but have you swapped out the stock capacitors for something a few notches up in quality/design in your QS amps? The changes in mine and a few other members (8+) who’ve followed along have also reported surprising results back to me as well. Also, changing out the stock input/driver tubes to something much better also helped after changing out the caps first. All the sudden IC cable changes became more noticeable too. Results were the same with KT150s and KT120s in my amps at least. I ended up using the same Mundorf Evo Silver-Gold (non oilers) in mine, same as I had in my former Cary Audio amplifiers, now in my Quicksilver Mono 120s for two years, and quite pleased. Mike Sanders is quite content with the stock caps in some of these latest amps, and they may mate with the horns he uses, not so much in my electrostatic AMT series speakers i use for whatever reasons. The Mundorfs opened up nicely, better tone, better texture, better layering, and sound coming from just behind both of my shoulders once they formed and fully settled in, fwiw. Was just curious, Best of Luck.
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