Member's recommendations for tube amplification


Your thoughts on options to consider:

- I'd prefer SET (open to DHT but not a requirement).

- I'm not looking for overtly warm, romantic or lush options.

- Minimum power in the teens to twenties, 10W being the floor.

- Open to higher power push-pull amps, but let's limit ceiling to around 60W.

- Single ended is fine though having XLR inputs would be nice (doesn't have to be true balanced)

- I'm cool with single chassis or monos.

- I have preferences for tube types, but leaving it open ended to get broad recommendations.

- I'm currently running an all solid state system, though have had tube based systems built around ARC, BAT, Ayon, Melody, Pathos, etc.

- Preamp will be a Pass XP-20 or the Metrum Adagio DAC direct to the amp.

- I'd like to stay around 3K used but can push the budget to 6K new/used.

- Speaker sensitivity is 94dB and higher.

THANKS!
david_ten
@atmasphere   Ralph, Thank you very much for your thoughts and advice and direction.

I'm taking notes. : )  

Agreed on the higher powered push-pull solutions, but am also getting feedback to stick to SET from members who I respect and who have also tried different combinations with the speakers I currently have. Obviously, this comes down to personal preference which is why I have reached out for other options. I've had good experiences with push-pull amps in the past.

Your S-30 and M-60 are on my radar.


David, we’ll see what Ralph has to say, but I would be skeptical about the suitability of the S-30 for use with a 4 ohm speaker, albeit one that apparently has a particularly flat impedance curve, given the amp’s 7 ohm output impedance and also its 50% greater power capability into 16 ohms compared to 8 ohms (with no rating specified for 4 ohms). It seems to me that you would almost certainly have to use a pair of Zero autoformers connected in a 4:1 configuration, to make the speaker appear to the amp as a nominally 16 ohm load, but even then my guess would be that neither the amp nor the speaker would be performing at its best.

On paper, at least, the M-60 seems to me to be a much safer bet.

Best regards,
-- Al

@almarg   Thank you for pointing that out. I'd rather play it safe with matching the amp to the speaker appropriately. 

Appreciate the link to the M-60s on offer by Duke / AudioKinesis. And for the information on your VAC Renaissance amp. 
First, a hearty thank you to everyone and a general shout out of appreciation and gratefulness for all of your posts and contributions. This has already been very helpful.

The multiple of choices are great but certainly overwhelming especially when I add the strong recommendations from the Tekton Double Impact thread to the mix. From that thread:

- The Triode Lab A23 amp and the Aric Audio KT88/120 amp come highly recommended by Terry London in his evaluation of two of the Tekton Design speakers.

- The M300B Frankenstein Mk2 also comes highly recommended by Charles ( @charles1dad ) as well as from those of you who recommended it above in this thread.

- and the Linear Tube Audio gear has been discussed extensively.

Just to muddy the waters...I'm in New Orleans...so muddy waters it is!

I just wrapped up an in-home demo of Volti Audio Rivals today, which are horn-loaded hybrid speakers, 6Ohm, with a listed sensitivity of 100dB (I did not measure in room). Immensely musically and emotionally engaging is an apt descriptor. At the shows they have been paired with Border Patrol gear.

I don't have immediate plans to bring something like the Rivals or a slightly higher level Volti speaker or something similar into the mix...but I can see doing so in about one year.

The Tekton Double Impacts are 4Ohm with a listed sensitivity of  98.82dB 2.83V@1m. Those who have measured, say 95dB/1W/1m, and I believe the math ~~ works out on that. I don't know for sure, but expect the SE version to come in slightly lower, therefore my 94dB figure.

When considering my amp choices, I do have an eye on both of these speakers and my reason for mentioning "94dB and higher." 

I fully realize it's probably best to optimize an amp pairing for each individual speaker, therefore focusing on what's in hand is appropriate.
david_ten-
Despite all the buzz, I have not heard the Tektons, so no idea how these amps might interact w your speakers, but I cannot say enough about the Atma and VAC Ren amps.  IME, 300b SET amps could not drive 94-95 dB speakers in my moderate sized room (18' x 14' x 8.5') w/o clipping with pretty un-demanding material (americana/singer songwriter/acoustic blues), even when the mid-low bass was handled by a separate 250 wpc ss amp.  If you listen to wide dynamic range stuff like full orchestra, you are going to run out of gas on crescendos pretty quickly.  Other advantages of those amps are variable feedback (VAC Ren) and unparalleled support from both VAC and Atma.