@ezstreams On the PL HP (had one) it’s only the two inside pre tubes (3/4) you need to ungrade for something fancier to alter sound.
@mclinnguy Half ot nothing. Who would have thunk? Please don’t overdo it!
Retirement integrated amp for a “fiscal conservative”
I’ve taken the plunge and am now enjoying the 2nd week of retirement after 44 years of work, including 42 years with the company I just retired from.
One of the retirement goals I’m really looking forward to is spending much more time enjoying music with my main system!
I’ve pretty much gone digital (but do have a Linn Sondek LP12 to enjoy LPs purchased in the 60’s - 80’s).
My system consists of a Rose 150B streamer/DAC and a Primaluna CD player for digital playback. I use a Roon Nucleus for Roon/Tidal new music research and listening. Speakers are original Joseph Audio Perspectives.
I enjoy all types of music, but mostly listen to jazz (preferably smooth but am exploring all of the various forms of jazz).
I’m currently using a Primaluna Dialogue HP Premium integrated amp which I’ve enjoyed for many years. Here’s where the “fiscal conservative” part comes in; this amp has 8 power tubes. Even with Primaluna’s great low tube stress design concept, I’m not looking forward to replacing power tubes every couple years with my retirement bonus listening time. Also, I’d like to get additional damping factor bass control than my current amp provides. I love the tube midrange and treble range sound, but would like an upright bass to sound more like a wood instrument (hard to describe in words) and hear more natural note attack and decay
I’d like to get ideas/advice from A’gon music enjoyment experts on a replacement integrated that still provides the acoustic sound of tubes, but doesn’t require new tubes every couple years/2,000 hours and is a great match to enjoy jazz on the rest of my system which I plan to keep. I’m open to used or new with a cap of say $8,000.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.
Eric
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- 126 posts total
@mclinnguy thank you for your observations. If it’s not imposing, I would appreciate you testing to see if the NOS preamp tubes you now use did tighten the bass on your system (your system A looks and I’m sure sounds fantastic!). If you can only swap tube positions 3 and 4 as @wsrrsw suggests, that would be an extremely useful test (at least for me). |
Thank you- actually the system has changed so much this year -the amp I am using right now isn’t even listed in my virtual system yet. It has been a while since I tested tube rollin’ in the EVO400 myself, so no worries, I needed a good excuse to experience the differences again. Quick answer: Yes, absolutely the bass tightened up with my RCA Cleartops over the Primaluna stock 12AU7’s. I still have the Prima Luna OEM 12AU7’s in the carrier spots on the sides (#1 and 6 spots) and I left in the 1960’s Mazda/Brussells f33 rectifiers for all listening. (I think that is what they are First I put in all 4 Primaluna 12AU7’s back in the middle 4 spots- Buddy Guy sounded MUCH louder, and fuller everywhere, and the bass bloomier/less tight- I had an urge to turn it down, I only lasted 5 seconds but clearly obvious-I quickly changed to Holly Cole. Surprisingly I didn’t notice this as much, I believe it was a little looser, would need to go back and forth again to be sure, but after I heard the additional sibilance in her voice it was hard to focus on the bass again! I put in just the middle 2 RCA’s as suggested, and yes bass became much tighter and controlled- and the loudness I experienced was gone. And just as important Holly’s voice sounded less sibilant. Putting back in the other 2 RCA’s in #2 and #5 positions to have all 4 back in front, bass was leaner again, but minimally so, perhaps half as much as the middle positions? so Warren was correct in the middle two positions made the most difference. Now I am wondering if bass, while a little fuller and bloomier with the mix of RCA and PrimaLuna OEM’s compared to all 4 RCA’s might have been more even-keeled? Hmmm, would need more testing to determine a preference personally, but your question is answered and my curiousity satisfied. As always, my system my ears, and this is with a Zavfino Silver Dart power cable into the back of this EVO400: YMMV- this is my result- pretty obvious actually. And these RCA Cleartops are the only 12AU7 tubes I have experimented with so far. I planned to get more but after getting these felt the improvement was good enough, and decided to do other things first. Bugle Boys, Telefunkens may be nicer, and for your concerns tighter still in the bass, I don’t know. But Brent Jessee has these RCA Cleartops for just $39 each- so you could get all 4 for the price of one Telefunken! Whereas a "rabbit-hole" powercord that could tighten up the bass this much would cost many multiples of this, methinks, so a tube experiment would be good bang for the buck. |
@ezstreams Please read this on Agon Seeking a Warm 12AX7 Tube for Preamp. Tube rolling can have nice benefits. |
@mclinnguy that was over the top nice of you to run that experiment! It looks like he’s selling specially matched pairs of RCA Clear Top with side getter for $99/pair. I’m going to try tube purchasing and rolling those as an initial toe in the warer trial based on youy experiment results. |
) And RCA Cleartops in the middle 4 spots. I listened to Buddy Guy’s - Blues Singer ’Lucy Mae Blues’ and ’I love the Life I Live’ which have always had a little loose sounding bass to my ears, and I recall it being quite bloomy in the past. I also listened to one of my favourite basstest tracks Holly Cole Train Song. Didn’t touch volume, or anything else, just turned off the pre amp, let it cool a bit, and changed tubes.- 126 posts total