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Tube virgin looking for tube amp under $3k

I’ve never owned any tube amps or preamps and since I’ve got 95dB efficient speakers I thought why the heck not? And wow! What a rabbit hole I’ve gone down In the last week or so and my head is really spinning. For just about every amp or amp/preamp combo there’s someone who loves it and someone who says don’t bother. And then the more I dig, the more brands I find.

I’ve read about these products recently:

— Erhard Audio integrated amp 
—The various iterations of the ST-70 (Van Alstein, Bob Latino, Will Vincent, etc.)
—Music Reference RM10
—Cary (out of budget except used)
—Raven (at max budget for integrated)
—Dennis Had (hard to buy/find)
—Quicksilver Mid mono (need preamp)
—Decware (too long a wait for me at the moment but maybe one day)
—Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III (at max budget and do I really need 100WPC with my speakers in a small room?)

And probably a few others I’ve forgotten about already. 

I have to say that the Bob Latino ST-70 speaks to me for the price of entry (about $1400) and the fact that I could get away without a preamp and only use a passive input selector. That said, would an ST-70 be the best choice or only the cheapest? 

Any ideas for a tube newb who doesn’t have a stockpile of tubes to roll in and out of an amp?




larshepping

Showing 2 responses by brownsfan

brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
@larshelling, what you say is correct with respect to a 100 wpc amp.  A class A 100 WPC tube amp will put out a lot of heat, so much so that it may challenge your HVAC system.  The right range of WPC is kind of important with tube amps or any class A amp.   More than enough is just a bunch of wasted power ending up as heat, too little and the music suffers.   I can tell you that my M-60 amps drive my 92.5 dB efficient speakers without breaking a sweat in a 2000 cu. ft. room and go as loud as anyone is ever going to want.   My guess is that for most people in most rooms with most music, a good 30 WPC amp would be plenty for 95 dB efficient speakers. 
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
High efficiency is part of the equation.  You will also want to think about your speaker's impedance curve. Some high efficiency speakers with wild impedance swings can still be a problem for many tube amps.  Also, your music preference, listening volumes, and room size  all play a part in your thinking.   Some will tell you that SET designs, especially 300b base designs, render music with an unequalled beauty.  At ~3K, you are almost at the point of thinking about something like a Coincident Frankenstein used.   Is that or a similar amp going to do it for you?  If you listen to acoustic music with modest dynamics at low volumes in a small room, an amp like that could work for you.  If you listen to Wagner operas and Mahler symphonies in a 3600 cubic foot room at realistic volumes then such an amp is certainly not appropriate. 

Personally, I'd stay away from low budget amps.  Most tube amps can't really deliver the goods without high quality transformers, and those don't come cheap.   If you go OTL, like an Atma-Sphere  S-30, watch out for that impedance curve.  You should be able to pick up a used one easily for under 3K.   The M-60's, even used, are going to be out of your price range. 
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