| AudioREVIEW's Forum Archives - Tubes |
|
|   Help me find a cheap, but decent tube amp....... | Night Wolf
Aug 12, 2002 7:48 PM | | Hello, after finding out that my integraded solid state powers my new (used) spekaers very, very good (and its realivitvly under-powerd) i changed my mind from getting a Pioneer SX-1250 (big, heavy, and a monster power wise) to something more nimble
I am looking for something in the 30-50watt+ range (I say plus because it can be as high as it goes as long as its in the price range) but must be at least 30wpc
I want to stay vintage (and that will be cheaper)
I would prefer integraded amp (as i am just getting into tubes, and don't want to spend a lot of $$$ on seprates) and i already have a tuner
Is there any vintage tube amps made by Sony? i havn't really found any
here is my system right now
amp= vintage Sony TA-2650 45wpc, nice little amp
tuner= vintage Sony ST-3950 I love this tuner, very good quality, and i have no intentions of getting a new tuner anytime soon (not for AM and FM at least)
cdp= Nakamichi CD Player2 Limited, very nice cdp, I love it, it will be my last cdp, untill SACD realy comes into play, which looking at it might be a looong time, and its 106db SN ratio
spekaers= JBL L100a, you all proably know what these are, and they just plain rock, 93db sensitivty means my 45wpc Sony will power these to louder-then-I-need volumes (where the Sony had trouble on driving my JBL ND310's which were 91db, i couldn't get any volume with the bass i want from them, but the L100a's wow there should be 2 catagorys, 1 spekaers 2 JBL L100)
I am also trying to get into vinal, I am looking for a cheap (vintage of course) turn table (I like the vintage Sony's) and try it out, if I like it, cool if not i will only loose $40 (which is what i plan on spending on a turntable) just something cheap to find it out
ok, here is the final thing:
the amp must be under $100, *maybe* alittle more if it would mean better quality/more power, but keep it vintage (I like the 70's gear) and it should be in good, working condition
can anyone find one for me?
Thanks
-Rick |
| sorry for the double post :) (nt) | Night Wolf
Aug 12, 2002 7:49 PM | | |
| sorry for the double post :) (nt) | k9vap
Oct 9, 2002 3:25 AM | | just bought my new valve amp from www.affordablevalvecompany.com
Fantastic!! |
| re: Help me find a cheap, but decent tube amp....... | muralman1
Aug 20, 2002 5:05 PM | | Ummmm, good luck. I'd say have a yard sale, work a little overtime, and up the anti a few hundred. Then you can afford an aftermarket Jolida integrated tube amp, the giant killer. |
| re: Help me find a cheap, but decent tube amp....... | skeptic
Sep 1, 2002 5:22 PM | | Two words that don't go together in new audio equipment today are "cheap" and "tubes." That's because solid state equipment has won out. So you will have to buy used equipment from the good old tube days of stereo when men were men and so on. An audio amplifier then really weighed something. It had 3 transformers. That was when I became seriously intereted in buying so I remember what was around.
In the 1960s there were several "tiers" of tube equipment. The top tier which still commands a lot of money was McIntosh and Marantz. Don't look there, it's beyond your budget. The next tier where you should concintrate your efforts were HH Scott and Fisher. Look for something like a Scott 299D amp or a Fisher 500C reciever. Harmon Kardon had an "Award" series that performed pretty well too. The They had 30, 50, and 70 watt per channel amps but beware, actual power was about 20 percent less because those were the old IHF standard for rating power. Citation separates will be too expensive for you. The best choice if you can find it is Dynaco. The equipment you want if you can get your hands on it is the PAS3X preamp and either a pair of Mark III power amps or the Stereo 70 power amp. Dynaco was considered "the poor man's McIntosh." Lesser equipment was made by Pilot and Bogen. Sherwood had some pretty good units. I'd avoid Lafayette. They had a lot of problems with their own equipment. |
| re: Help me find a cheap, but decent tube amp....... | skeptic
Sep 1, 2002 5:24 PM | | Sorry, the ratings for the Harman Kardon Award series were total power (both channels), not per channel. |
| |
|
|
