Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough?
Looking for stories about your low-watt amp journeys.
Here's the situation: I have new speakers, 97 db. Trying them with lower watt tube amps (45/211, 300b, etc) seems generally wise. I am attempting to borrow some from audiophiles in the area.
The horizon beyond trying these things involves actually buying some. I'm looking at a budget limit of about $5k.
Curious as to folks' experience with lower-watt amp kits vs. those of good makers (e.g. Dennis Had, etc.).
If you have any thoughts about the following, I'd be interested:
Did you start out with a kit and then get dissatisfied? Why?
Did you compare kits vs. pre-made and find big differences?
Did you find you could get the equivalent level of quality in a kit for much less than the same pre-made version? How about kit vs. used?
Also: did you find there was a difference between "point to point wiring" vs. "PCB" in these various permutations?
I realize that there are good kits and bad ones, good pre-made amps and bad ones. I'm hoping you'll be comparing units which seem at comparable levels of quality and price-points.
Thanks.
Sun Valley 845 doesn't use an inter-stage transformer between driver and 845 tube. 845 is impossible to drive without IT! You get more driver tube distortions than 845 output stage distortions. You also can't get a good deep and fast bass. The same I can say about 300B. But 845 is much more difficult to drive than 300B! For PX25, 2a3, 45 output tube or if kt88/kt66/el34/6L6/6v6 used as SE output in triode mode you can receive a good sound without an inter-stage transformer. |
I use a 2016 Dennis Had Firebottle HO (high output, whatever THAT means...max 15 watts pc or something? Likely less with some tubes but, meh...) that sounds astonishingly good with my 99db horns (mid horn damped titanium mid and tweeter drivers Heresy IIIs), and swap that amp with a Pass XA-25 when the mood strikes. 2 REL subs resulting in absolutely no lack of bass, tons of headroom with either amp, and joy in my brain. These amps sound somewhat different but both are so good and similarly mirth inducing that I simply don't need anything else. |
To @wolf_garcia, which output tubes did you land on for your DH Firebottle HO amp? |
I'm currently using Gold Lion KT66s, a NOS Amperex 6SN7GTB (looks like a re-branded GE), and a "Tubestore Preferred Series" 274B rectifier. Note I have a drawer full of tubes including more GLs (88s, 77s, 90s, 120s, etc.) and other stuff. The 66s are pretty great, but I'll likely get bored and swap em out at some point...for now they stay. |
@alexberger Here's what my tech friend and amp builder said about your comment, in case you're interested: "It doesn't [have an interstage transformer], but then again most single-ended amps don't have an interstage transformer, nor most PP amps for that matter, they are expensive. The 845 is hard to drive and since the SV uses a 12BH7 to drive it, there is less power than if driven with a larger tube or an interstage transformer. Clearly it is not "impossible" as the amplifier operates." |
