Advice Moving from Tube Integrated


Greetings,

I'm currently using a tube integrated, which I recently bought new, to power my custom loudspeakers that are based on the Altec 604 driver. Benign impedance, and high efficiency are earmarks of this driver.

I sold my Parasound Halo power amplifer, and Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 preamp to buy the tube integrated, and now I'm very sorry, to say the least. While 250/wpc was overkill for this system, there was an ease and lack of strain, which I attributed to the headroom available with the amplifier.

I believe that integrateds have made their way up the chain to where they compete with separates, so I'm looking for a solid state integrated in the 100/wpc range, and in the $1,800 - $2,000 price category.

By the way, is anyone familiar with the "ICE" amplifiers? I understand they can be quite good when matched with the right speakers.

Thanks in advance!
seadweller

Showing 1 response by pal

I would try a Plinius 9200. Plenty of power and a very fluid sound. I just sold mine to buy a set of JC1s but I have Magnepans and they like a lot of power. The Plinius did a nice job on the 3.5s.