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Anyone recommend a neutral tube amp?

I've been wanting to move to tubes for some time now. Lately I've changed most of my equipment. I now have a Rega Saturn CDP and some very revealing Opera Callas monitors. My amp is the Sim Moon 5.3 integrated. I like the neutral character of the amp, it simply takes on the characteristics of whatever is being played through it. Can anyone name a tube amp that is similarly neutral, that won't color the sound of the CDP?
rfprice
jtimothya
612 posts
 
The CJ 140 is one of, if not the, most neutral CJ amp I've heard, though by direct comparison it still hints at their house sound, the CJ golden/caramel tonality. My sense is that CJ began moving more toward neutral starting w/ the likes of their 16LS preamp and then further with the ACT2 and Premier 140. I suspect some of this comes from their adoption of the Soviet 6H30. The LP amps are back to the 6922 and my sense is that, in response to customer input they've swung back, or at least not gone even more toward the yang. The 140 should also be a great match with the Callas monitors.
gerrym5's avatar
gerrym5
286 posts
 
Neutral tube, my personnal choices would fall into three brand camps.
European: Tron to Audio Note
American: Wavestream (Scott Franklin) to VAC
Canadian: Wytech to Coincident Technology

Note a neutral detail choice vs a more subtle neutral choice in each camp.

While not a tube pre-amp and basically not available the CTC Blowtorch struck me as shockingly neutral.



jaybo
4,478 posts
 
keep the moon
ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,157 posts
 
The cj premier 140 is quite neutral, but still sounds like tubes.

If you want a tube amp that sounds like SS, listen to a Sonic Frontiers Power 2 or VAC PA 100/100. These two amps combine what is NOT good about both technologies.

Oz
hchilcoat
154 posts
 
The KR Audio tube amps with their reverse hybrid design are very neutral ranging in power from 20-100 watts/channel (actually one version at 200W).
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