2. amps-preamps
  3. 1259336985

new amp choices

Hi everyone... I'm trying to start setting up a new listening system, and I'm hoping that I can get some help from the people around here since I'm a little lost in all the options available.

A little background on the music I listen to... it's mostly rock/metal but I do have quite a few jazz/blues albums that I enjoy listening to. I have a turntable (technics 1200) and also have all my CDs ripped to FLAC and stream them using a squeezebox.

After looking around at all the options out there I noticed that most amps are really expensive, and since I'd like something with tubes I initially thought I'd start out with something small. So I was looking at the Cary xciter integrated and the matching DAC, and pair it with a set of bookshelf speakers. I was interested in this setup mostly because later when I want to upgrade I can just move it to the bedroom/office and don't need to worry about selling it.

Then after looking around some more, I saw that there's other more powerful amps that I could get that aren't terribly expensive. Some of the ones I saw were the SixPacs which seem like they would make up a solid tube power amp that I most likely won't need to upgrade in the near future. The other option was getting a tube integrated like the Cary 120S or something from Rogue Audio (either the Cronus or the Tempest II).

So out of all these options what do you guys think makes most sense? Just spend some money upfront on a good power amp that I could use as a base for my sound for a long time, and just add preamps/DACs as needed?

Thanks for your help.
jibbonacci

Showing 3 responses by jibbonacci

jibbonacci OP
31 posts
 
I'm still undecided on speakers, but the budget for speakers would be preferably around $1000-$2000, maybe a bit more depending on how much I spend on the amp. I listened to some Totems that sounded pretty good (rainmaker bookshelfs were cheap), and I can get a decent deal on the Vandersteen 2c signatures but I haven't actually heard those speakers (or how they would sound for rock/metal).

Budget for the amp is around $2000-$2500, and if I go with a power amp only I can use my current receiver as a preamp temporarily until I decide on a pre.
jibbonacci OP
31 posts
 
Thanks a lot for all the responses so far, and what you said does make a lot of sense so I think I'll focus on finding the speaker I like first.

Tonight I went by a local audio shop and I tried some Dynaudio and Elac speakers, and for a first impression I really liked the Dynaudio Contour S1.4. I didn't bring my own music this time but listening to some jazz with female vocals sounded really good, and they had some rock that I got to try out (Faith No More) and that also sounded really clean. They're pretty expesnive speaker, around $3300 I think, but they might be worth it.

And as for biasing my amp that's not a problem... I have a couple guitar amps currently (one with KT-88 the other with 6L6) so I'm pretty familiar with tubes, and this is actually one of the reason why I want a tube amp.
jibbonacci OP
31 posts
 
Hens... thanks for the speaker recommendation, I'll have to spend some time to research them.

The Dynaudio's were powered by a Pathos Classic One, which at 70 watts doesn't seem like a whole lot of amp and it didn't have any problems driving them. However I only spend a small amount of time with the speakers so I'll have to go back for a closer listen.
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