Tube amps... (1 Viewer)

[Michael_Hml]

Kevin,

Hahahah, sometimes I scare myself when I think of how much time and money I've put into this hobby over the years... but I like it too much to stop.

I haven't heard the Behringer gear, but it was on my short list before I decided to build the TLP. I've also heard some good things about the ART tube preamps.

There's a PAiA tubehead on Ebay right now for under $50 already built.

If you're inclined towards DIY - the new kits are $109 fronm PAIA in either the "pro" or "hifi" version (both the same, just different chassis).

The AKSA TLP as-is is around $170 USD for the kit ($340 AUD). The Nirvana upgrade adds another $40 USD or so, and if you want a nice ALPS volume control, that adds another $20 USD. Not too bad overall if you feel like building it. You do have to supply your own enclosure, but I think I've found a pretty nice custom-sized extruded aluminum one for under $30 including anodizing.

-Mike

 

[Chris Purvis]

for the record, I've had good results with a foreplay preamp combined with a solid state (GFA-555) driving some NHT 2.5i's which are rated at 86 db/watt. Not super-tubey sounding, but definately smoother than with a solid state frontend.

 

[Yogi]

Discussion about tube amps and still no Saurav is what I am wondering.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Chu- Thanks (I thought it was a DSP-created tube sound).

I have a Symetrix stereo analog parametric eq I haven't hooked up yet to do room node taming for the low end of my mains. The Behringer may kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Need to see what the processing power of the DSP for the eq is...

 

[Chris*Liberti]

I would say Dynaco St-70 or if you shop around you may be able to get an older McIntosh like a 240 or 250

 

[Chu Gai]

my son has a behringer v-amp that he plugs his electric guitar into. it's a solid state unit but the range of modelling is just amazing. for that product, possibly others?, there's a very active yahoo group discussing features, sounds they've been able to emulate. all i can say is the solid state modelling sounds frighteningly good. best of luck to you in finding something.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Chu- That Behringer unit is 100% analog! No DSP.

 

[Chu Gai]

so does that mean you're gonna take it out for a spin?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Chu- I think like you said, offer them $125 (in cash) and see if they'll go for it. A cheap and easy way to compared tubes to ss. Maybe not the "best" tube sound around, but should at least educate me to what the major differences are.
And then I can just see it: then get an old (well cared for) Dynaco or Scott, then maybe a Jolida, then figure I can do it better myself, then maybe travel to Uzbekistan because there's this dude in a shop next to the butcher shop across from the bread shop who makes his own tubes and they beat the pants off of anything else on the market but he only sells them in person...

 

[Chu Gai]

i've seen him. his brother makes weapons doesn't he?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Hee hee.

Michael, I looked at the PAIA tubehead. It's a pre amp. Would it be possible to use it like the Behringer? I.e., run the pre outs from my surround sound pre amp *through* the PAIA into my ss amp? (Would the output of the 1st preamp *overload* the Tubehead? I suppose I could adjust volumes and stuff, but I'd want to try for unity gain through the tubehead.)

The Behringer is nice, because I get the parametric eq part too though... (I have a BFD for my sub, and kind of really like it.)

 

[Chris*Liberti]

Also I just saw on ebay there are a few McIntosh MC240's for around your price range that look to be in good shap. one looks like it has all new tubes and capicitors even. And from a highly rated user. May be worth a look. I am planning on getting aeither an MC240 or 250 myself within the next year for use with my analog setup. Just a turntable, cd player, dac, preamp and amp on this setup.

 

[Michael_Hml]

Kevin,

I've been using the tubehead (before I tore it apart to start the rebuild) in a processor loop that I added into my preamp. It works great in that capacity. Before I added the processor loop, I had played around with it running after the pre-outs and before the amp... it also worked fine, though needed to have levels set a bit differently. I added the processor loop so that I could take advantage of the sound through the headphone output of the preamp, but either way seemed to work.

I'm hoping that my enclosure for the AKSA TLP will be here this week so that I can finish that up, too for some comparisons.

-Mike

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Cool, thanks...