Tubes? ARE YOU CRAZY?

madmax

Happy new years everyone!!!

OK, So Im a looser. I'm sitting here on new years eve contemplating the advantage of tube sound over transisitors. THIS IS BIG! There is a reason why "Tube Sound" is still a concern in the audio world. When you overdrive the first stage slightly (very slightly) then limit it in the second stage you get a really Big, Spacious, Live, pleasing sound. I'm not much into tubes because the wimpy 30 watts for $1000 just doesn't cut it with SDA's. I have found however that replacing a transistor pre-amp with a tube preamp with the proper controls is a very close second. At this time I'm using a "Presonus Blue Tube" pre-amp on my system and am getting very good results. The Presonus Blue tube pre-amp can be found on e-bay for as low as $79 and is very quiet for audio applications. It has two controls for each channel. One is gain and the other is drive. This allows you to add a little of the tube sound in the preamp then amplify it through your transistor amplifier. Yea, it adds a little noise but really makes up for it when you calculate enjoyment. I don't work for their company or anything but will be happy to answer any questions you have concerning the effect of this pre-amp on an amplifier system (so far as my technical ability allows) because of my enjoyment of the effect. This is really cool and adds a dimension I had not thought possible before. I have always wondered about tubes but with SDA's and little cash I never really got into it. If your interested in my opinions feel free to e-mail me @ csmallwood@marsh-mcbirney.com. I am recommending a try for my friends and that is why I decided to post something about it. Tubes really do have their own sound. Not for everyone but sure is a breath of fresh air for some.
madmax

gidrah

I Think about the use of tubes in general all the time. I've actually had a couple dreams about the use of tubes, but most are about speakers.

Unfortunately, I recently bought an otherwise decent receiver that does not have any pre/main-in/out (s) and couldn't talk the wife into it. But I might be able to slip a bid past and hook it up in the basement with some other stuff. Good eyes!

High efficiency Polks would be a dream come true. Hhhhmmmm? (Left head thinking).

CrazyHead

As a matter of fact, I just got my first tube amplifier setup about three weeks ago.

I got a JoLida 502A integrated. Svetlana 6550C power tubes, Philips power drivers, and Yugoslavian Ei ECC83 pre-amp tubes. I've got some NOS Telefunken on the way just because these are supposed to be valve nirvana.

I have it connected to an MSB LinkDAC-III external digital to analog converter via IXOS Ixotica Aptimus interconnects and IXOS Gamma 6003 speaker cable to my venerable Polk RT16's which I have had ever since I got into hi-fi in 1996.

It's amazing to me... these Polks were what started this addiction and the Polks still satisfy even after all these years! They can be so detailed and rich... even without the tubes!

The only speaker I would consider replacing my Polks with would be ProAc 2.5 or 3.5's... ProAc has the same richness and warmth of the Polks but significantly higher resolving power. But they come at a much higher price, too... around $3,000 a pair of base model 1.5's!

I have recently embarked on a plan to re-wire and calibrate my RT16's... I believe that the crossover may be causing a significant amount of information loss and it's not the most well designed. If this is the case and I achieve success, I'll report here about my mods and the total cost.

-- Robert

madmax

Crazyhead,
I read some reviews on that model. It sounds like you are going in the right direction. I noticed each of their models use a different set of tubes. I guess each one has it's own sound or benifit. At this point I know very little of tubes other than cheap preamps and guitar amplifiers. I did at one point connect a Marshall amplifier to my SRS SDA's and was pretty amazed at what the upper midrange and treble sounded like. It makes me wonder what an audiophile class tube amp would do. Let us know what you find!
madmax