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Help with tube amps

I have recently become quite interested in puying a tube amp. I have no knowledge about tube amps but have been told of the magical sound a tube amp will make. I am looking to be able to put this tube amp into my system once in a while in order to experience this magic with my husband through a night of romantic acoustics every once in a while. Although my budget may seem low ($1000), I am hoping that there are some amps out there that will suit my needs. Amps I have looked at so far: Houston GSP-02, Sonic Frontiers SFS-80, and Decware Zen triode. Looking for any other suggestions and/or advice.
emily
david99
1,467 posts
 
The Houston would be a good choice.It has cool looking tubes that would add some great glow to the evening.Its a great looking amp and Ive read it sounds quite good also.Customer service is a problem with these as I believe the company went under.Music Direct has some demos for around $600 that listed for near $1000 at one time.Of course you would get better sound buying a used amp for $!000.If you ever see a Conrad Johnson MV-55 for $1200 or so you may want to consider spending more.Its a killer amp and has that tube magic midrange like few others.It looks good too
pls1
432 posts
 
My wife and I often listen with two other female music fanatics. All of the ladies demand tube amps. I prefer tubes but personally there are several SS amps I could live with. As a start a Jolida 502 used, with decent tube upgrades could be a good beginning since if you don't like it they are very easy to sell and g0 for 500-800 depending on the specific tubes. We have one in our bedroom sysgtem. Tube do amps tend to have personalities or house sounds that may or may not be to your likeing so I would suggest trying to listen to several different manufacturers. For example CJ makes superb gear but we don't like the CJ house sound but it is a personal preference not a recommendation.
sober1
18 posts
 
Emily,
Do yourself a favor and go to http://www.quicksilveraudio.com/products/mini_old.html and check out Mike's Mini's for under $1000. a pair. I'm running his 8417s' and these babies are pure magic! Quicksilver Audio excells at customer service. Boy is your old man one lucky dude!
Have Fun!
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,346 posts
 
Emily: What speakers are you using and how large is your room? If the speakers are efficient and have a reasonably flat impedence curve that does not dip too low, it will open up the number of possible choices greatly and if this is not the case then it will narrow the search down. I also supect that if you end up with a good system match that you and Hub may end up burning those tubes more often than you imagined. My wife loves the sound of our tube amp even on nights when I am grumpy (it makes no difference). I recall that you had an Adcom preamp, but cannot remember the rest of your system. Did you want a power amp only to use with your pre, or would an integrated amp be more practical? I used a solid state pre with tube amps in the 70's. It sounded good to me and was nice and quiet.
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