Impressed with Tubes

Hi KIt,

Newbie is right on target, you have to weigh all of the possibilities, especially price, which is the biggest factor for most of us. I can vouch for the Rogue 90 power amp whioh I owned for about 4 years before selling it last year. It is a tube amp with 90WPC in ultralinear mode or about 55WPC in Triode mode. It was very musical, good soundstage and dynamics. It's versatile enough that you can roll the tubes to 6550, KT88, or even KT90 and it has a built in biasing control which is the simplest that I have ever used. It is fairly priced about $2,200 new and is built like a tank. I've seen used ones on Audiogon in the $1,200 - $1,500 range. In my opinion, besides the sound quality, tubed equipment offers a dimension of fun and appreciation in this hobby that places it in another world when compared to solid state equipment. Good Luck!

My take on tube equipment is to use it where it makes sense, since tubes won't work well in every application. Certainly, the best use for tubes is in voltage amplification applications such as in preamps, input and driver stages of power amps, phono stages, CD players, D/A converters, and the like. Where solid-state equipment has an advantage is in output stages of power amps where semiconductors have a much lower output impendance and work better for current amplification. Now if your speakers are a relatively benign load tubes will probably work well and give you what Cyclonicman and Newbee say they will. But if your speakers have a difficult impedance curve, not only will your tube amps not provide a sonic improvement, they may be prone to outright failure. It has happened to me in the past. The other issue is maintenance of tubes and tube amps, so if you don't like turning dials or adjustment screws, I would stick to solid state power amps and tubes for everything else. There is something magical about the little glowing glass bottles.

I've got a tube integrated (preamp plus amp), tube cd player and tube phone stage. Can't get enough tube :) Seriously, at least to my ear, solid state is just for office and bedroom systems.

In my experience, if I had to put tubes in one component, it would be the preamp hands down.

Art

Kitjv,

I owned a Rotel 980BX amp and RC960(?) preamp about 6 or 7 years ago. While a great value for their price, Rotel definitely errs on the lean side of accurate. Most of the problem was in the preamp stage, I thought.

But, in my audio journey since those early days, I've found there are lot more lifelike and rich components out there, both ss and tube.

Rogue definitely makes great, dependable, equipment which holds it's value well. But, selecting tube components is a highly subjective and personal experience.

How about letting us know what type of music you listen to and at what volumes. Also, what are the musical traits you value the most - dynamics, bass, midrange, scale, etc.

Rogue, Antique Sound Labs, Quicksilver - all worth checking out.

Hi Kitjv:
I've recently listened to a Rogue Perseus through a Rogue Stereo 90. At that time I had a Rogue Cronus integrated, which was great. Rather than buy a new Perseus and 90, I found a used Rogue 99 preamp and a 90. The 99 is remarkable. Better detail and soundstage than the Perseus. For $2500 I got both units vs. $4k for new Perseus and 90. Rogue is a great company to work with too. I've been to their factory twice. If you want to upgrade tubes, get them from Rogue directly, they can guide your choices.