Why does my new tube amp and preamp sound so bad?


Hi: I am brand new to audiogon but I would appreciate any ideas you folks may have. I am a seasoned audiophile with only SS experience. I have wanted to try the "tube" sound for awhile but have just now been able to afford it so I put together a new tube based system along side of my SS. I purchased a used set of Klipsch La Scalas and restored them and powered them via my Adcom amp and preamp. The speakers sounded excellent, great bass! All right, next step after much internet research, but without hearing, I purchased a new Cary Rocket 88R amp and a AES (Cary)AE-3 DJH preamp. There are no Cary dealers within 200 miles of where I live (I know dumb mistake!)Hooked the system up and it sounds terrible. Well I thought the tubes just needed breaking in. After 100 hours no better. The sound lacks any bass and it is very "tinney". It sounds as if a low frequency roll-off filter is present. I contacted Cary and they said substitute the AE-3 for my Adcom preamp. I did and there was an immediate improvement. Cary had me ship the preamp back and they checked it out and could not find anything wrong. I put it back into the system with the same results. Does anybody have any ideas? Could tube rolling be the answer? I have tried different interconnects which made no difference. With all things being the same the Cary preamp sounds terrrible when compared to the SS Adcom. I am having a hard time believing it is natural that the 15 year old Adcom smokes the Cary. I am a fairly competent electrical engineer and I believe the tube setup (bias) is correct. I would appreciate any help. Thanks, Larry K.
lkitchell

Showing 2 responses by pbb

Maybe you simply don't like the sound? If everything checks out ok technically speaking, grin and bear it and then the break-in period will be over and you will learn to love it. Oh, the only break-in period I believe in is the one where the listener's ear/brain processor breaks-in, that is gets to the point where the system starts being its very own reference. Amazing what the human brain can do! Good luck.
Yeah, sure they really do burn-in and then go straight on through to burnout. What I am saying to the original poster is that if the components are functioning properly electrically speaking, maybe that is the way they do sound like and maybe they simply are not his cup of tea. What I am also saying is that, once he has assessed that they are functioning properly, he try to live with them a while and give himself and the components a chance.