Hipgrncln said:Looking to break off my HT system into a 2 channel separate system. Thinking about a tube system but know very little about them. Where do I start???
socialxray said:Never heard a tube amp but I love the look of a tube amp. Something about brass, glass and chrome that just does it for me.
socialxray said:I am not sure if I have time in my life for the maintanence of a tube amp. Isn't the life of a tube fairly short? Don't you have to make all sorts of adjustments during the life of the tube to keep it sounding good?
ernio1 said:If you are new to tubes, I would suggest starting with a tube preamp and a solid state amp. You can get a lot of the "tube" sound just going with a tube preamp. This is also a practical approach, since you do not need to hassle with having to replace and bias tubes... which can get very expensive.
This is the way I have my system now and I have been using a Tube Pre and SS Amp. In fact after much seaching into a new Main Amp, and listening to Tube and SS, I purchased another SS Amp to power my CLSIIz's.
A good start is Audio Research tube preamps.....LS16, LS15 and SP16 are excellent to start with.
I now own the ARC SP16L (line stage only) pre and I am very happy with it. Worth a listen to along with the CJ and other Tube Pre's.
Dan
ernio1 said:If you are new to tubes, I would suggest starting with a tube preamp and a solid state amp. You can get a lot of the "tube" sound just going with a tube preamp. This is also a practical approach, since you do not need to hassle with having to replace and bias tubes... which can get very expensive.
A good start is Audio Research tube preamps.....LS16, LS15 and SP16 are excellent to start with.
Hipgrncln said:Looking to break off my HT system into a 2 channel separate system. Thinking about a tube system but know very little about them. Where do I start???
BoB J
Hipgrncln said:If simplicity is the key ... why use a pre-amp.... cannot one just connect the cd player (providing it is one with a volume control) directly to the power amp??? Alsom what is anyones expirience with tubed cd players?
Bob J
If only everything is so simple (pun intended). "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler", as quoted from A. Einstein. In theory, and if you only have digital source, you're correct that the pre-amp is not needed. However, after many emails to various designers, there seems to be a convergence that a beefy, well-designed analogue (output) section is needed to drive the amplifiers via the interconnect cables. This usually means an indepedent power-supply section, preferrably having choke on the input side to stabilize the input voltage, supplying discrete circuitry. Having this "preamp" buffer circuitry crammed inside a digital player may not be the best approach when noise may "bleed" between digital and analogue sections. One could lessen the noise bleed by having seperate compartments for digital and analogue circuitry as well as having separate power-supplies for various purposes. Suddenly, now one is faced with a complex chassis design with multiple (shielded) compartments in addition to the high quality of components used. We're now talking about the likes of Wadia, Krell and Mark Levinson to name a few. But, when cost is factored into the (expensive) equation, one could go with separate CD player and a decent pre-amp, thereby maintaining the flexibility to replace/upgrade in the future.Hipgrncln said:If simplicity is the key ... why use a pre-amp.... cannot one just connect the cd player (providing it is one with a volume control) directly to the power amp???
Enter your email address to join: