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Tube amps & warm speakers?

Hello again folks,

In my quest to try and get into audio again I had another post regarding good 2 channel pre's or integrated's. Upon browsing this forum and looking at all the beautiful used gear around I now find myself a little interested in maybe a tube integrated amp now. Seems like all the serious audio enthusiasts enjoy tubes more than SS. I really want to be blown away sonically when I choose to listen to my system. And...they're oh so sexy. :)

My question is this....I've heard before that tubes and warm speakers can almost be too much of a good thing. I realize listening is subjective but just trying to learn and save myself unproductive searching if I'm only going to be disappointed.

My speakers are Dynaudio Audience 50. I know, I know.... bottom of the barrel for Dyn's but still sound pretty good to me for the money.

Thanks for any insight.

AW
awilliams
aball
2,016 posts
 
It really depends on the tube amp. Some of them are not as seductive and warm on top as you might think. For instance, I had a CJ MV55 and compared to my McIntosh MC240, the MV55 sounded like a solid-state amp in that it was cool and dry sounding.

As far as too warm, if your amp and your speakers have good transparency, you can alter the tonality very easily with the source and cables, and to some extent, the room. The trick is to realize that you have several variables to work with and not just two. Good luck and have fun.

Arthur
saki70
907 posts
 
I don't recall the Dyn's as being a warm speaker .

But anyway , some of today's new designs for tube amps are really not "warm" as the older designs have been . Some of the newer designs are closer to good SS than traditional tubes . And tubes can be fine tuned to increase or decrease a particular aspect .

One of these 'newer' designs is the Primaluna Prologue 2 .
An integrated that stock , does not have that traditional tube warmth . It can use quite a few different tubes to tailor the sound to your liking and is self biasing , which can make the initial experience less daunting . Some tube amps can be a real bear to bias .
pauly
1,012 posts
 
AW, you'll probably be better off with a transistor amp driving your speakers. The 50's are not very efficient and have a nominal impedance of 4ohm which makes me think they they are not going to be tube friendly.

You could try a big push-pull tube amp, but I doubt it would be worth the effort.

Regards
Paul
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
I second Pauly's comment - nothing really to add to this good advice.
tpsonic
1,092 posts
 
I will second the PrimaLuna PL2.Very dynamic and possibly a bit lean w/stock tubes.I substituted the Shanguang triple-mica 12ax7s and some French cryo 12au7s-stand back.The 12ax s are about $6/ea and the 12au s were $45 ea.Listening room size and distance from the speaker will determine the amount of power you need.Experiment with the different sound of the corresponding taps-4 ohm/8 ohm,they will sound different.Which ever suits your system best,is the correct tap.
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