I appreciate all of these opinions and insights. I guess now I have to figure out how much amp/watts is just right for my speakers. For example, those Rogue pieces are nice but 100wpc is a lot for my sensitive speakers and medium sized room. But how much that matters is now what I need to find out.
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?
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?
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- 74 posts total
- 74 posts total