Thinking about trying a tube amp. Thoughts.

pearsall001 · August 18

I was always a SS guy when it came to amps. I've had a few tube pre's but never a power amp.
My concerns are heat, tube life & replacement costs along with the ability to perform in a HT / 2 channel system. Just thinking about scratching that itch. Bad idea or go for it.

Currently running a Parasound A21+ which is a stellar performer in the combo system.

daddyjt · August 18

I think you would have to spend an obscene amount of $$ to find a tube amp that would outperform your Parasound SS amp… Just my opinion, don’t seek to fix what ain’t broken.

mhardy6647 · August 18

The issue is matching a vacuum tube amplifier to one's loudspeakers. If (!) one has an affinity/predilection for certain types of loudspeakers (and all that comes with them), it can actually be fairly easy and inexpensive to buy or build a reasonably-priced vacuum tube power amplifier (stereo or pair of 'monoblocks').
If constrained by a pair of hard-to-drive and low-sensitivity loudspeakers, the task may be much more expensive and frustrating.
As to lifespan of power tubes... they can last a long, long time. Depends mostly on the circuit design (fundamentally, depends on the operating points for the vacuum tubes).
I have a much beloved pair of 2A3 power triodes dating from the late 1940s that I bought used around the turn of the century. I've put hundreds of hours on them (probably more like 1000 hours), and their use prior to my acquisition of them is completely unknown. They are ca, 80 year old tubes. They sound great. I paid $20 for the pair ca. 2003.

bcwsrt · August 18

I dunno about tubes for HT, but I absolutely love, love, love my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III in my dedicated 2-channel setup. 100% reliable and still on the factory KT120s after just shy of three years. Pretty sure it sees quite a bit more service and power cycles than the average tube amp, too.

Having said that, if I was going SS, Parasound would be at the top of my list. Guess we always want what we don’t have!

Speaking of which … I should really make a road trip for those doggone 1.7is! lol

pitdogg2 · August 18

bcwsrt wrote: »

Speaking of which … I should really make a road trip for those doggone 1.7is! lol

I'm betting those would be intoxicating in your room.

pearsall001 · August 18

bcwsrt wrote: »

I dunno about tubes for HT, but I absolutely love, love, love my Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III in my dedicated 2-channel setup. 100% reliable and still on the factory KT120s after just shy of three years. Pretty sure it sees quite a bit more service and power cycles than the average tube amp, too.

Having said that, if I was going SS, Parasound would be at the top of my list. Guess we always want what we don’t have!

Speaking of which … I should really make a road trip for those doggone 1.7is! lol

They're sitting here waiting for you!! My interest was always piqued about the Rogue ST 100. Stelllar reviews & I think enough power for both HT / 2 channel

treitz3 · August 18

FWIW, I gave up on tube amps years ago. They do and can sound great, no doubt. But they are so damned finicky and high maintenance sons-a-itches. Fiddling with tube malfunctions, burnt resistors, diagnosing, bias shift and the magic smoke on occasion just got to be too much. The worst part was when they went down, I had no way to listen to tunes until they were fixed. That was not my idea of a good time, so they eventually went out the door, and for good.

I got a "spare" SS amp to tide me over when my last tube amp failed and after it was put into the rig? It didn't leave for for a decade or so. Not one problem with it the entire time, and 3 or 4 years later? She is still running strong in the LR rig. It got replaced by another SS amp and at this point, unless that one fails on me, I'm done with amps.

Again, I do absolutely love, love, LOVE the sound of tube amps. Some of the best sounds I have ever heard was on an 8 watt tube amp. The big boy and rare Carver amps, Manley amps, ARC, BAT, blah, blah , blah tube amps all had some damned fine sound. Many of those who's system I heard these tube amps on had many issues down the road. So if you want to play, be prepared to play. You may get lucky....but then again, you may not. Just know what you are getting into (and have a spare SS amp you can instantly slide in) and be prepared for the inevitable.

Tom

Jstas · August 18

So tube amps are super snazzy with their glow and that's all you should be concerned about. Get one now and never look back!

Seriously, though, your concerns are legit.

Heat - not as much of an issue as you would think. While they do get hot, the tubes themselves are not nearly large enough to make a significant difference in heat in a room. The power transformers that some are saddled with do, though. So the more inexpensive tube amps will have a power transformer that is barely big enough to run the load and they get hot because of it. The problem there is a hot transformer can actually run in a state where it's like...partially open in the sense that when a transformer opens it means that the internal structure is no longer congruent and you end up with infinite resistance or a short circuit and basically a failed transformer. In this "partially opened" state...which isn't really a thing but I'm trying to simply a concept here so bear with me. In this partially opened state the transformer is heating up and creating a resistance increase. It can also expand parts far enough that they are losing the capacity to handle the current but they aren't to the fail point yet. This condition creates more heat in the transformer than normal and with heat soak, it can become compounding, leading to failure.

In solid state, the amp would start clipping. In a tube amp, you get different behavior but it will lead to the same failures.

Other tube amps will run bigger or more inefficient power transformers to support the "soft clip" that tube amps tend to have, not to save the amp but to save your speakers. The tube amp will run the harmonics created in that "soft clipping" all day long and experience minimal, if any damage at all. Your speakers, not so much. They'll overheat. But that big arsed power transformer, that's gonna bake some bread with the heat it kicks off.

The tubes themselves, though, they get warm and if there is something above them for an extended time, that will get very warm too. But if there's nothing above the tubes, meh, negligible. If you touch that hot glass tube with anything, though, it's gonna severely damage what touched it and possibly explode.

Tube Life - this matters more with how you treat the amp than anything. If you are perpetually overdriving it or putting too big of a load on it and running it at high volumes, you will end up opening the tube before it's time and then it will need to be replaced. You can get into REALLY expensive stuff like "tube rolling" and I'm sure Brock will chime in on that if he hasn't already but in the grand scheme of things, tubes do actually last a long time. The sound will change as they age but that is the nature of the beast. I have a tube amp I built myself that uses 11BM8 tubes. I have two spare sets in storage because I thought they would be needed way more often than they are. But...ah hell, 20 years later I'm only on set #2. Of course, run time matters and if I listened to it more often, I'd wear the tubes out sooner. Your tubes should last you years, though, not weeks or months unless you start fiddling with different kinds/brands etc.

Replacement costs - solely up to the brand and type of tube used. Country of origin matters to because tariffs, sanctions and such. Many are still made in Russia or Belarus. Many of the audio amplification tubes, though, are inexpensive to begin with because they are very common triode or diode/triode designs with 3 electrodes, a cathode, a grid and a plate which are simple and inexpensive to manufacture. They can get into esoteric materials which can drive costs way up but you can usually find a more that acceptable middle-of-the-road replacement tube that gets some fancy new stuff along with the old reliable stuff.

When you start getting into stuff with tetrodes and pentodes with 4-5 electrodes and some even have multiple grids, they get very expensive. While there's benefits to the modulations that they can mess with in a tetrode or pentode, they have very many uses beyond amplification of a signal which is why they are more complex. So if you go for something that has some fancy signal path wizardry in it that isn't a pre-amp function, signal transmission/reception or other type of control input, you should seriously consider if that cost and complexity is a good idea for a first-time foray into tubes. There are plenty of diode/triode based designs out there that will knock your socks off, no need to break the bank on expensive tetrode or pentode designs.

All that considered, some things to know before hand. Tubes can be over-driven but they will have a reduced life expectancy if living like that for extended periods. Heavy, insensitive loads will not give you the most sparkling results. You will need some expensive tube amplification to make heavy loads sound acceptable. Ask nooshinjohn about that kind of amp. Like, a set of Carver Amazings are not a good load for a tube amp unless it's something like a Carver Silver Seven. Klipsch Heresys, on the other hand, tend to shine on even the smallest tube amps.

You are not going to easily hit the 200wpc benchmark with a tube amp so don't try. Besides, tube amps have a significant amount of overhead that they can run in to before damage or shortening of life expectancy. A 2wpc channel tube amp on a reasonably sensitive speaker (like 90-92 dB) will perform like a 10-15wpc solid state amp. That same amp on very sensitive speakers (95 dB+) will perform like a 20-25wpc solid state amp. A tube amp with 20wpc channel and 90-92 dB sensitivity speakers will behave more like a 50-75wpc solid state. Jack that sensitivity up to 95 dB+ and you get performance closer to 75-100wpc. That's not an actual measurement either, that's what your experience will be closer to. Lemme esplain.

20wpc is 20wpc but the tube amp will sound different. It won't clip hard. I mean, it will but if you get there, you are past the pain threshold at that point and you'll hear some really messed up noises coming out of your rig before failure and releasing of the magic smoke. So don't think you're going to get this magic amp that's going to exceed expectations and let you run high powered stuff all the time. It's a different approach to amplification and with the analog nature of it, they are more forgiving and less harsh sounding than their solid state siblings. So while you're not actually getting any more measurable volume out of it, there is a richness to the sound due to the amplification harmonics that makes them SEEM louder. Mainly because to get that same depth and richness that the harmonics bring in a solid state amp, you need to really give it some power. Tube amps do it natively at lower power levels. So it just SEEMS like they are louder. Bob Carver's Transfer Function amps...the Silver 7t amps were designed to mimic the sound of the Silver Seven tube based amps at a fraction of the price. He did it by deliberately introducing noise into the signal path but only very specific noise. You've heard those Silver 7t's too, at my house, powering a bunch of different kinds of speakers from Carver Amazings to Polk LSiM 703's.

Side note too, many guitar amps are still tube based because of the sound they produce. It's still diode/triode based amplification and that's why those amp types are more inexpensive, the tubes are still produced and readily available.

Jstas · August 18

Oh an back in 2010, at Lou's for the Polkfest, the rig that got listened often (probably the most) was my stupid little 8wpc tube amp with with a glorified gain function and a 3.5mm to RCA input powering a set of jungle green KLH Model 17's I got from RuSsMaN by way of George Grand.

Doro and I were listening to Rob Zombie at 11 and Lou actually had to come upstairs to The Amazings Room to tell us to turn it down because they couldn't hear the AR9 and BBQ rig in the living room. But when Al Ballard heard about what was making all the noise, he came upstairs with some glasses and bottle of booze and said "I have to spend some time with this."

That little amp ran all weekend long and still has it's magic smoke. We did abuse it a bit and about a year after that I had one tube on each channel open up on me and when they did, I replaced all 4 and bought 2 sets of replacements at the time.

Also, at one point, I had that stereo amp plus 3 mono amps built on the same 11BM8 tube and used it as a home theater in my small apartment. I ran the KLH 17's on the front stage and pair of KLH 22's on the rear stage and an EPI single speaker for the center that George didn't have a partner for.

I will say that the HT was pretty neat seeing 11 tubes glowing away on the shelf but, the length of wire to run to the rear speakers did make a difference in dynamics and they seemed disjointed from the front stage. The EPI was a bit brighter than the KLH17's so it stood out a bit too. While watching stuff that was heavy with music was certainly enjoyable, they just didn't have the guts needed for the dynamics of a home theater. The cool factor was through the roof but the reality was something significantly less.

The lack of dynamics was not due to the speakers, either. They may only be in the 15-17 kHz range on the top end but even the small-ish Model 22's would dig down to the 40 Hz range reliably. Enough that the low end was filled out easily with a Polk Audio C4 non-amplified, band-pass subwoofer being run by a NAD bridgeable stereo amp feeding it 200 watts crossed over at 80 Hz. The 8 watt tube amps just struggled to keep up with stuff like explosions or roaring engines or something and it was apparent.

The center amp blew it's power transformer and one of the tubes and I didn't replace it. I ended up giving the other two monos away to a friend's kid as well as a pair of KLH 17's and second Onkyo P-301 pre-amp I had sitting around. They moved away, though, and I lost touch so I have no idea how long it survived but all he had hooked up to it was his dad's old Technics turntable. Dad and son got to listen to his LPs and get baked in the basement like he used to when he was a kid so, hey, mission accomplished!

pearsall001 · August 18

Hey John,

Thanks for the excellent information!! A lot of information that I need to sift through.
There really is a lot to consider running a combo system.
What type of power do you think is warranted for a combo system. My room is on the large size (13x30x7) pretty much identical to your room in your last house.
I still remember that smoker you had going all day at your Polk fest, good stuff?

invalid · August 18

If you want tube sound, but don't want the upkeep try a hybrid with tubes driving mosfet output stage. I'm using a hybrid with kt150 tubes driving a mosfet output stage, driving Polk SDA2A speakers, it doesn't play as loud as my Krell ksa 300s amplifier, but it's only 50 watts compared to 300 watts, and the bass is better on some types of music. It's easy on the tubes because they aren't being used at the top limits. I have never heard the hybrid amplifiers that the same small manufacturer makes 100 watts amp with 6sl7 input and 300b driving an 845 that's driving mosfet output stage, all output transformerless.

Jstas · August 19

Power isn't a good measure of what you would want. You can have a tube amp with only 20 watts per channel and it will perform as well or better than a tube amp with 60 watts per channel.

There's two factors you need to consider when choosing something that fits your room with tube amplification. Well, three.

First: Budget. Figure out how much you can spend and then start looking for stuff in that price range.

Second: How efficient are your speakers? Big speakers for big rooms but, big speakers are a hard load to drive. So figure out what your speaker sensitivity is and if it's under about 92dB, you'll want to find a tube amp with over 20 watts, probably closer to 50-70 watts. You go above that and you will be getting into really expensive stuff.

Third: Signal to Noise ratio. The better the SNR numbers are, the more overhead that amp will have on it and you will be able to drive a heavier load at a reasonable level.

The SNR is the ratio of your signal to your noise. Every amplification circuit has noise introduced somewhere along the line. The more engineering put in to finding and taming that noise before the output the more expensive the piece of gear gets. Tube amps have lots of inherent noise. Here, this explains it good:

Noise Level

The noise level is the level of unwanted signals or interference. It can come from various sources such as electrical devices, radio waves, and other wireless networks. A lower noise level means a better SNR.

A ratio higher than 1:1 (greater than 0 dB) indicates more signal than noise. An SNR of 95 dB means that the level of the audio signal is 95 dB higher than the level of the noise. However, keep in mind that a very low noise level is not always achievable. In some cases, it may be necessary to reduce the noise level by using noise-cancelling techniques or by moving away from the source of interference.

So, for example, here is a 12wpc, class A tube amp from Yaqin, an outfit out of China:
https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/yaqin-mc-84l-class-a-vacuum-tube-integrated-headphone-amplifier?variant=29748472545340&country=US&currency=USD&srsltid=AfmBOop1xXFIyeqiEGvR0tuqVi48p4GOGBryxS8UJ8nHXyfUwQPiwd2Y7TY

It has an SNR of 78 dB but the concerning number is the 5% distortion at 6 watts. That's a messy amplifier. I HOPE it's a misprint and more like .5% at 6 watts 'cause while still messy with the measurement at only half it's rated power, that's much better. But that tells me that even though it's Class A, it's inefficient and you want a really sensitive speaker to run on that amp. Even at that, it will likely not reach rockin' the house levels of sound pressure levels. It's using EL84 / 6P14 x 4 for output tubes and 12ax7 x 2 for driver tubes.

For comparison, here's a Luxman at 10wpc at 6 ohms, so more like 8 wpc at 8 ohms.

https://audiolab.com/products/luxman-sq-n150-vacuum-tube-integrated-amplifier?variant=51878404456814&country=US&currency=USD&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22372215553&gbraid=0AAAAAD-AjcAsSOw--RTYIaeq5penKnbE2

It has an SNR of 95dB and a total harmonic distortion level of 1% or less at 10 watts. That is a very clean amplifier by the numbers and despite the lower wattage, it's going to be able to get to decent levels of volume before it starts breaking up. It's not likely to shake the walls down either but it will be good for critical listening at moderate levels. It's using ECC83 × 2 for the driver tubes, EL84 × 4 for the output tubes.

Then there's this Cary:

https://carydirect.com/cad-120s-mkii.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq_ptPTWpbogcGVnMviyNJvyuC7QboGdSm1lzVIzJhLZ8j0bizNKOU

At 60wpc and an SNR of 80 dB, it'll handle most anything you can throw at it except the very largest stuff that demands stuff like 100 watts minimum. But the Cary here has a gain circuit which complicates things and introduces noise sources but they tamed it well if they got all that in to an 80 dB SNR. It also makes the amp more flexible on what it can drive. But for it's price, it'd better! It uses two 6SN7 input tubes on the gain stage, two 6SN7 driver tubes and eight KT 88 output tubes and none of those are super expensive at all. So even though the price of entry is high, they used very common tubes for everything so you can get replacements for bad tubes inexpensively. That's a good thing.

So there's 3 different tube amps all over the map. For just these 3 alone, if I had the money and needed to drive large speakers, I'd go with the Cary. The Luxman is going to perform very well, especially on more sensitive speakers so it's a good compromise and good for critical listening but if I want to blow the windows out of the house, that one is not it. The YAQIN, I would pass on that one. YAQIN does have other models that are much better, though, but pricier.

There's plenty of other brands out there, though. You can pick up nice stuff on the used markets too.

So you have a fairly large room to fill with sound. You know you have to look at the sensitivity ratings on the signal to noise ratio and total distortion percentage and at what power level the measurements were taken at.

Do you have an idea of what speakers you want to drive with this? 'Cause it'd be easier to make a recommendation on what to look for with that. Unless I gave enough info for you to feel confident shopping yourself?

pearsall001 · August 19

Hey John,

Again thanks for the insightful information.
My current speakers are JBL HDI 1600 stand mounts. 4ohm / 85db sensitivity.
My main concern would be a tube amp handling HT demands. I'm sure 2 channel is a lot easier for the amp.

Jstas · August 19

OK, so, those JBLs have a 15 watt minimum so despite the lower sensitivity, they seem to be an easy load to drive. Horn loading a heavy tweeter can really boost performance at lower levels of power.

Anyway, the important specs are:
Power range (watts) 15-200
Sensitivity 85 dB
Impedance (ohms) 4

So depending on your budget, you'd want an amp that is 20-60 watts and the lower the Signal-to-Noise ratio the better. So if you are looking at the amp specs you want a low percentage for the THD and a high dB value for the Signal to Noise.

You will need something that is 4 ohm stable as well.

Are you planning on driving all channels with tube amplification or just the Front Left and Front Right channels?

If you're pressing it into HT duty then you will want to go for the highest power level you can for your budget. I don't know what the rest of the channels are powered at but you will notice a difference if the rest of the channels are solid state and front stereo pair are tube based. Especially if the other channels have significantly high power levels. You'll probably need to do a lot of fiddling with channel signal input levels to compensate.

pearsall001 · August 19

The tube amp is just for the L/R mains. The Yammie AVR powers the rest of the speakers (7). Very easy to level match all speakers thru the AVR though, I set all speakers to 75 db. I'm wondering if the L/R sound in HT mode would be that far off from the other speakers being powered by the Yammie. Of course in 2 channel there is no issue at all.
Maybe a tube amp in a combo system may not be the way to go. Too many variables.

Jstas · August 19

It honestly shouldn't. The noticeable difference will be in the dynamics level of the different channels. If the other channels aren't adjusted to match what the tube amp is putting out, you'll have to turn the volume up significantly higher to be able to hear the lower powered tube channels and that will make the other channels too loud and shouty. If you don't tone down the other channels to match the tube amp channels output, you'll get a very unbalanced surround sound experience.

When I was messing with an all-tube-amp HT, the biggest problem I ran in to was my low-end Oinker receiver did not have discrete channel adjustments and it was hard to compensate for various sensitivities of the speakers I was using so it ended up very disjointed with the center channel being very dominant and the rear surrounds being distracting because their sensitivity levels were higher than the front pair. If I could have adjusted the discrete channel levels individually, it would not have been so disjointed.

But if you have discrete controls for all your channels, you're just going to be in tweaking heaven.

pearsall001 · August 19

Calibrating each channel (speaker) is a piece of cake with the AVR. All 9 speakers calibrated to 75db.

Conradicles · August 19

I say go for it. Tubes in H/T present a challenge, but it has to be fun trying.

nooshinjohn · August 19

Conradicles wrote: »

I say go for it. Tubes in H/T present a challenge, but it has to be fun trying.

It all depends on how you go about it.

heiney9 · August 20

pearsall001 wrote: »

I was always a SS guy when it came to amps. I've had a few tube pre's but never a power amp.
My concerns are heat, tube life & replacement costs along with the ability to perform in a HT / 2 channel system. Just thinking about scratching that itch. Bad idea or go for it.

Currently running a Parasound A21+ which is a stellar performer in the combo system.

All valid concerns.

H9

pearsall001 · August 21

I'm starting to think that a tube amp wouldn't be the best choice for a combo system. There would be no concern for 2 channel but I have reservations about it being able to perform for HT demands.

Emlyn · August 22

I went down that road a long time ago and decided it wasn't a good choice. I had a high power tube amp from Sonic Frontiers. One thing it did was heat up the home theater room! It also interfered with getting a consistent sound signature from the front three speakers. My best decision was to get a Parasound A31 three-channel amp and just leave that in place for years of speaker changes.

pearsall001 · August 22

Emlyn wrote: »

I went down that road a long time ago and decided it wasn't a good choice. I had a high power tube amp from Sonic Frontiers. One thing it did was heat up the home theater room! It also interfered with getting a consistent sound signature from the front three speakers. My best decision was to get a Parasound A31 three-channel amp and just leave that in place for years of speaker changes.

I'm coming to the same conclusion. Tube amps have there place but I think HT is not one of them.

Jetmaker737 · August 22

This thread is coming to a very unsatisfying ending when someone is NOT spending (not my) money on some sweet new gear.

pitdogg2 · August 22

You could move up the Parasound line into a JC5 and get 25 watts of class A
😉😬

heiney9 · August 24

Tube power can be finicky at times. I personally wouldn't want it to be my main rig. I have a couple or tube integrateds that I mess around with occasionally.

Don't get me wrong, it can work and, if new, probably has few issues......but for me it's the "what if's" Power tubes have become very expensive lately and while they should last several years, many don't. As good as some current production tubes are, they still aren't close to NOS tubes from the hey day.

I'm sure there are many rewards, but the warm up, cost of retubing and the "What if's" have kept me away from a tube power amp in my main rig. Using for HT adds another layer of uncertainty.

A really good tube pre will get you most of the way there w/o the minor drawbacks of running a tube power amp.

Just my .02c

H9

P.s. And Nelson doesn't make one.....

skipshot12 · August 24

pearsall001 wrote: »

I was always a SS guy when it came to amps. I've had a few tube pre's but never a power amp.
My concerns are heat, tube life & replacement costs along with the ability to perform in a HT / 2 channel system. Just thinking about scratching that itch. Bad idea or go for it.

Currently running a Parasound A21+ which is a stellar performer in the combo system.

I have recently, last few years, thought of trying a tube amp and am really interested in the outcome of this should you go tubed.

Having only owned, and never heard tubes, solid state everything I'd like to know what you hear when comparing the two with the exact same supporting equipment.

skipshot12 · August 24

I have a some questions for the pros regarding tube amps.

1. Do tube amp owners pursue any active cooling as some SS amp folks do?
2. Are there be any benefits to keeping the tubes/amp cooler?
3. Any negative things in actively cooling a tube amp and/or it's tubes?

4. Are my SDA SRS (Gen1) speakers something that would work well with a tube amp?
We listen loud with the SDA's being driven by a 500w per SS amp.

Also, I'm thinking about a nice tube amp would work really well with my Infinity Prelude MTS speakers.
They have a sub that's driven by a B.A.S.H. 850w class d amp.

These are the specs for the Prelude MTS Tower....
Drive-units (all ceramic-aluminum matrix): 1" dome tweeter, 3*"-cone midrange, four 5*"-cone midbass. Crossovers: 300Hz, 2kHz, 24dB/octave. Frequency response: 80Hz-22kHz, ±3dB; 100Hz-20kHz, ±1.5dB. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms, ±1dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/1m. Power requirements: 25-500W.

5. Any thoughts on a tube amp for my Prelude MTS's?

These speakers can be driven completely, including the subwoofer, with the amp of choice or, it has the ability to allow the subwoofer to be driven by the internal class d amp allowing the chosen amp to just drive the tower drivers.

The Prelude MTS's ceramic-aluminum tower drivers can be a little bright, I'm thinking a nice stereo tube amp may be a good choice for the towers, letting the internal Class D amp drive the subs.

Apologies pearsall, not trying to hijack your thread.

pearsall001 · August 24

Well it looks like a tube amp is not gonna happen. Having a combo system & all the quirks associated with a tube amp it's not worth the bother. Plus I have my doubts that it could keep up with the dynamic swings presented with HT. Nothing like a good 'ole hi-powered SS amp with plenty of current to get the job done.

treitz3 · August 24

skipshot12 wrote: »

I have a some questions for the pros regarding tube amps.

1. Do tube amp owners pursue any active cooling as some SS amp folks do?
2. Are there be any benefits to keeping the tubes/amp cooler?
3. Any negative things in actively cooling a tube amp and/or it's tubes?

4. Are my SDA SRS (Gen1) speakers something that would work well with a tube amp?
We listen loud with the SDA's being driven by a 500w per SS amp.

Also, I'm thinking about a nice tube amp would work really well with my Infinity Prelude MTS speakers.
They have a sub that's driven by a B.A.S.H. 850w class d amp.

These are the specs for the Prelude MTS Tower....
Drive-units (all ceramic-aluminum matrix): 1" dome tweeter, 3*"-cone midrange, four 5*"-cone midbass. Crossovers: 300Hz, 2kHz, 24dB/octave. Frequency response: 80Hz-22kHz, ±3dB; 100Hz-20kHz, ±1.5dB. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms, ±1dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/1m. Power requirements: 25-500W.

5. Any thoughts on a tube amp for my Prelude MTS's?

These speakers can be driven completely, including the subwoofer, with the amp of choice or, it has the ability to allow the subwoofer to be driven by the internal class d amp allowing the chosen amp to just drive the tower drivers.

The Prelude MTS's ceramic-aluminum tower drivers can be a little bright, I'm thinking a nice stereo tube amp may be a good choice for the towers, letting the internal Class D amp drive the subs.

Apologies pearsall, not trying to hijack your thread.

Best to start a thread of your own...

Tom

skipshot12 · August 25

Yea, thanks Tom.

Thinking about trying a tube amp. Thoughts.

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