Tube amp, size and power info........


I am geting a new pair of speakers wich are 99db efficient with a plate amp for the woofer, I have a tube pre but now I can entertain tube power but I want a reasonable price to try and also it needs to fit in a standard rack space (6.5 inches) I would say that anything above 25 watts will do, my pre-amp is a Sonic Frontiers and my usual volume is low to moderate, never obnoxiuosly loud, what are some options that wont break the bank, I know it isnt much but I am talking around $500 new or used.
Thank you as always Chad
chadnliz
Aball is right. 99dB sensitivity is quite high, especially when your sub is powered, so you don't need to look at 25-watters. 3-10 watts will simply blow you away ... for all of the right reasons. Just do some crit research. I wouldn't spend mega-dollars at first, and I don't think I'd even consider 300Bs at this point, at least not before you know that tubes are where you intend to stay.
Name the speaker and this will help.
I've had 97db speakers with a 16 ohm impedance that sounded best with 100watts of SS...this is the what the designer voiced them with.

My experience is that things are not always as they seem.
You mentioned rack space. Tubes get hot and need to breathe , do not crowd them in a tiggt rack withiout 5 inches of space above .
Agree with Brainwater. Put tubes in a rack and you can bake cookies just like EZ-Bake Ovens. Plus most tube gear is not rack-mountable.

Used AR amps come to mind if you are using the DB99's from Von Schwiekert.

Good luck!
It occurred to me that Ty may be building you a 4 ohm loudspeaker. If the dual 10" midwoofers are run in parallel, then it will likely be a 4 ohm (or below) load. In that case, 99 dB efficient at 4 ohms is equivalent to 96 dB efficient at 8 ohms. An 8 wpc 300B SET amp may not be enough in this situation.

For something cheaper than $500, you might consider a Dynaco ST70 (lots of them on the market, lots of tweaks/mods).