2. amps-preamps
  3. 1103816815

Tube Newbie

I have been running a fairly beautiful 5.1 surround set-up over the last few years, and have grown a bit weary of my 2-channel quality. While I love the quality of surround sources (DVD, HDTV, ProLogic II), I tend to get listening fatigue with dynamic music. My goal is to warm-up 2-channel, making it more itimate witout wiping out the detail and punch in my 5.1 sources.

A good friend has suggested a CD player with a tubed output stage, like the Ah line carried by Upscale Audio. I am also considering a VTL 2-channel amp (around $2K) to drive the L/Rs of my system.

I am wondering how difficult it is to deal with tubes. I have read about "biasing" tube-based amps and have no idea what that intails.

My current system consists of: Gallo Reference 3s L/R, 7 channels of amplification from Parasound Halo (A52/A23), Def Tech SuperCube II sub, Gallo Dues for the surrounds and a soon-to-be-upgraded B&W LCR600 for the center channel. The Gallo Reference 3s have the second coil of the woofer bi-amped via an Outlaw Audio ICBM (hence the 7-channels of amplification). Processing is via an older Rotel RSX-1055 (using the pre-amp outs) while I figure out what pre/pro to get. The DVD/CD player is an Integra 5.3 using the analog outs for 2-channel.

Thanks,
Ted
128x128teonyc

Showing 1 response by portlandlay

portlandlay
62 posts
 
Teonyc,

When I started playing around with this stufff a few years ago I bought VTL's tiny triode monoblocks and the TL2.5 tube preamp. The little amps did not have the slam an extension of some of the huge solid state amps but they were much better balanced and sounded so much better.
I still have the set and still love them.

As far as biasing it is really easy. A 5 minute job once in a blue moon.
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