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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
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
stewie
187 posts
 
Will Vincent's Dynaco Mk IIIs are awfully nice. A pair comes in at about $1400 if memory serves. He goes by autospec here on the board.
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