2. amps-preamps
  3. 170144-114280

A little tube magic?

I’m looking for some ideas and impressions. I’d really like to run tubes for amplification, but my system pulls double duty for music and tv. It is on probably about 8 hours a day for one or the other.  This just seems like to much to me for running tubes. I’m looking for a way to be able to keep my solid state setup but add tubes in a manner I can switch them in and out. I have couple of ideas but I am aware neither is very ideal. 
First I thought I could add a tube preamp or maybe even buffer in the tape loop of my McIntosh C46. I know this will add more complexity for the signal to pas through. I’m not sure if I can expect gains that will be better that what I lose by adding extra cables and components.

My second idea would be to add a tube power amp on some sort of switch, something similar the the Shiit SYS. Which is basically a passive preamp with two inputs and a potentiometer. I’ve read that can use it backwards kind of and have the output be the input and run the two inputs to two different amps and then switch between the two. I would think I’d need two sets of speaker cables to make this work, and switch them back and forth as needed. I’m not really fond of either idea and hope there may be a solution I’m unaware of. I really just want tubes for music and ss for tv if it’s possible.  
A third option would be to get a tube dac for music listening, but I’m unsure if I’ll be able to get the amount of tube sound I’m after. I guess I could see it as part of the solution along with tubes in the pre or power amp as well. 
Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. 
brylandgoodman

Showing 1 response by mwh777

Ag insider logo xs@2x
mwh777
71 posts
 
The following is what I'm doing right now for the exact same issue, millercarbon's eyes will be rolling soon I'm sure (don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy MC's presence both for the experienced perspective and the entertainment value provided for free, thanks MC) .

I have two preamps in my system. The tube preamp is for music and for tv and other video is a solid state preamp. My amp is solid state. Access to the back side of my equipment is easy. I simply power down the amp and move the interconnect that is between the preamp and the amp from one preamp the the other as needed. Yes this is not ideal but, is easy.

There is one difficulty to be faced and that is overlap of remote control commands between the two preamps. Most manufacturers use some variation of the Philips remote protocol (japan makers use the NEC protocol). I get around this problem by placing an inexpensive metal bookend (Amazon sourced) in front of the remote receiver eye on the preamp that will not be in use at that time to block the remote control signal.

Yes I wish I had a more elegant solution but this does work. I tried the home theater bypass idea by feeding the tube preamp through the bypass circuit in the solid state preamp but, the HT bypass was not transparent enough to work well.
More to discover