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I'm switching over to tubes and need some sound advice...last night I hung out at Jon Van L's in chicago listening to his fantastic speakers through a $2700 Cary amp and a local made tube preamp $3500.I'm going to sell my gear, plan to spend $2000 on a good tube integrated and a new set of speakers...any recomendations? At some point down the road i'll buy a nice pre to go with the set...first things first though.
I'm leaning towards Deware MG944 speakers and a Jolida 302B amp or maybe a Decware Zen amp. I'll be replacing a '92 Muse 100 amp, Belles GR8 passive pre and '92 Thiel CS2's.
I've owned tubes before, and heard lots of tubes at dealers...last night was the first time a tube rig didn't sound like tubes...it was clear, dynamic and oh so fast and true. Granted, i was listening to $15K worth of gear...he had a nice Cary cd player also. No joke, the tops of the heads of bassists and vocalists was over 6' up, guitar players sitting on stools, you could see it. The wildest, hugest, truest soundstage i've ever heard...someday.
Follow Ups:
If your budget is $2000, this would fit, closely:(Used) Conrad-Johnson CAV-50 Integrated, ~ 40 watt/channel. Can be had for low $1000's on ebay (I paid about $1400 for mine.) New, I think they were about $2500.00
Speakers: Magnepan MMG, about $550 delivered to your door. These are a "demo" speaker, with the (unusual?) feature that you can get all or some of your money back if you don't like them. You can get all or partial credit to a bigger more expensive Maggie (they hope you'll upgrade.) OTOH, if you are needing to playing REALLY LOUD and/or you think a SET amp in your future, look for higher sensitivity [grin].
I've owned both these, but not listened to the combo. I listen to a pair of Maggie 1.6's hooked to the CAV-50, however.
I heard this same set-up at John's place several months ago when he was finalizing the crossover for his new speakers. It is indeed a good set-up. Don't discount the influence of his speakers on the resulting sound - they are quite good. Since you listen to Thiels' I think a lot of what you heard is due to the voicing of his speakers as opposed to the tube electronics (I owned Thiel 03A's back in the day and they were ultimately fatiguing on the top end). Now, I am a tube guy (I bought my Cary 211 AE monoblocks from him as he is Cary dealer) but you should not discount the speakers contribution to the overall sound. Good luck and keep us posted.
Mark
Invest most of your money in speakers.
I have been impressed by some new tube amps, too, but I did not sell my SS system. I am adding tube amplification so I can listen to both.My experience. Cary, Jolida and Prima Luna all basically have passive inpreamps in their integrateds. Thus, they don't sound real tubey, but they lack something as a result....to my ears! I'm not sure about Manley Stingray, but Rogue uses a small mu follower in their Cronus. They are my favourites in this price class and I would gravitate toward a used Stingray or Cronus. The former would take up a lot of your budget.
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