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Tube Amp Recommendations $1500

My last amp was a Prima Luna Prologue 5, and it was my first Tube amp, and I loved it! I ended up selling because I turned it on one day and it sparked, then smoked, and as a result, one channel played quieter and distorted. I didn't want to deal with it and needed some cash, so I sold it...

I am currently using a modified Acurus A-100 which is a great amp for the money I spent ($300) but it's time to start researching tube amps in the $1500 price range.

I'm looking for something that looks good, has more power than my Prima Luna 5, and has that charecteristic warm, lush, textured and detailed sound.

My current set-up is:
Pangea P.C.'s
Signal cable silver res. interconnects
Lightspeed Attenuator
Parasound Z-Dac
Wadia 170i
Ps Audio Quintet
Paradigm Sig. 2's V.3
4 gik 244's
11x13 room
Musical tastes: Rock, Electronic, female Vocalists, Classical, Jazz.
128x128b_limo
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Bruce (Bifwynne), yes I was referring to you. Thanks for chiming in and for adding the further specifics. Bruce (B_limo), as the other Bruce indicated he has obtained good results pairing his ARC amp with Paradigm speakers due to the fact that his amp has significantly lower output impedance than most tube amps, in addition to which it is very robustly (and expensively) designed and incorporates large amounts of energy storage.

Czarivey, thanks for chiming in also, and for the best laugh of the day :-)

Best regards,
-- Al
a_passion
20 posts
 
Check out JWN Amplifiers and reviews by renowned reviewers Lynn Olsen at Positive Feedback and Dick Olsher. Each amp is hand-built and competes with amplifiers way above your budget, but can be easily be built well within your budget. Jim is a great guy and easy to work with and will build you an amp to your specifications. I can personally attest to the quality and sound. The reviews speak to the quality and performance. BTW, I also have a passive preamp that I switch out from time to time. Your lightspeed should be a great match Good Luck!
plasmatech
77 posts
 
Quicksilver Silver 90 Monos are still fantastic sounding amps, competing with those many thousands more. At 90wpc, they have great bass control.
jarcher
20 posts
 
CJ & LM, just about any, will sound better than Prima Luna and much better than old Acurus. I've owned at least 4 different Acurus products (amps and integrateds) and had to finally accept that while powerful and well built, sound was dark & brittle (non "a") to bright and brittle ("a" series). CJ (tube or ss) or LM will sound much more musical. Don't discount LM as integrated. I've never been happy with passive preamps - too lean. Either an LM integrated or even the new Rogue Audio Sphinx hybrid integrated would work great - and the sphinx should have no problem with your paradigms and only $1300 new. That's probably the easiest most reliable way to have some tube goodness without the hassles.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
05-28-14: Almarg
Regarding the Acurus A100, one factor that may be in play is that its input impedance is only 20K, which may be too low to be optimal for use with the Lightspeed. You might want to ask George about that, either directly or in the Lightspeed thread. The output impedances of your sources will be a factor in that, since with a resistance-based passive attenuator the impedance at the output of the attenuator will depend to some extent on the output impedance of what is driving it (as well as on the volume control setting).

Regarding your question about the rest of your equipment, I see nothing that particularly stands out as a weak link. I'm assuming that you've kept the length of the cable at the output of the Lightspeed short, as it should be.

Regards,

No problem Almarg with B limo using the Lightspeed with this setup as his Parasound Z dac has a low 160ohm ouput impedance, which can easily drive the combined Lightspeed and Acurus load of 6.6kohm.
As always use up to 2mts interconnects of low capacitance less than <100pf (picofarad) per foot, which most quality ones are anyway, from Lightspeed to poweramp/s.
If higher capacitance 200pf per foot then 1mt should be used.

Cheers George
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