2. amps-preamps
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Moving away from tubes. Is this a good idea?

I need a new amp for my Totem Sttafs and REALLY considered tubes. My final thought is that if you don't have a certain pile of money you are only kissing your sister. Have you ever seen my sister? Besides there is a Devel's Tower of a learning curve for me to climb around tubes and I'm really anxious to just sit down and listen without any anxiety (if you know what I mean).

I have an opportunity to pick up a JungSon JA 88-D class A integrated amp. Just one piece of electronics to move onto the rack (but what a BIG piece:-)

I have a relatively med/small room (16'x17'x8'). The speakers are rated 8hm, 88dB, and 100 W max. program.

The amp is rated at 80 wpc, class A, RMS 8ohms.

From what I read the JungSon is about as close to a tube sound via ss as I can get without breaking into the kids xmas fund. I just want a rich full room of acoustical/vocal/instrumental music.

Could you give me your opinion if you think the Sttafs will be underpowered or unmatched.

Thanks.
djh
jw94055
125 posts
 
Try the JungSon with your speakers, if you can. Reading about the Jungson, it sounds like a good buy. If you are getting it at a deep discount, it may be a great buy. Get a tube DAC if you want to get some tube warmth into the system. Question: what kind of service is available for the amp if it needs repair? At sixty pounds, shipping it to get it fixed is going to be an expensive pain.
bdgregory
1,720 posts
 
I have a question to add to this thread - sorry to hijack your discussion Djh.

there's a good deal of attention to self/auto bias merits above. It's certainly easier, but is it better?

I have 3 guitar amps - all tube - and auto bias is an undesirable feature if you're interested in "tuning" your sound. It's not hard to do, indeed in some amps it's really easy. Guitarists pay money to mod their self biasing amps to enable manual bias.

Is this also the case with home audio Tube amps? That is, is it more desireable to have manual bias?
bobf
207 posts
 
Hi Djh,
I have heard the amp you speak of at my home.It really is a nice piece.
I have run the gamut of all tubes to all ss to a mix over 30 years.
In the end I ended up with a hybrid integrated as i like both options in their strengths, ss vs. tubes but realized that in the end what I was missing was some tube influence.My wife even noticed :^).
Best of luck to you in your search.
Regards,Bob
vett93
205 posts
 
I second Bob's recommendation. If you like all kinds of music, a hybrid amp is the way to go, IMO. I still have a 300B SET amp, and it is for my home office. I also have a pair of KT88 monoblocks and they are for my bedroom.

For my main listening area, I have a hybrid power amp with SS driver and output stages but tube gain stage. I also have a tube preamp and a tube CD player.

I love the mids and highs of tube power amps. But the lows can be improved if you like tight bass. Besides, the even harmonics are cancelled out in Push-Pull output stage anyway. So you might as well putting SS there.
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