[Tube Amp, what to know before purchase?]

I had one of Bob Latino's early versions of that VTA-120. It was a good sounding amp for the money. However, there were some design issues, and I discussed them with Bob. I trust others found the same things because he fixed them all.

The newer versions have lowered the gains on the driver boards. The amp would sometimes overdrive based on too much input from the driver board. He came up with a time delay circuit to prevent repeated rectifier failures, of which I had a few. He also added a stepped attenuator to control the gain of the amp. This was a welcome change..........every amp should have a gain control.

Anyhow, the amp I had was built by Bob himself so none of the above was because of a kit build.

Bob is a great guy to work with. I would by another at any point. I often look at the website and want one. I agree it's a great deal for the money and will sound great with Klipsch horns. There are some low cost tempting tube preamps on the site as well.

I have the Bob's ST120 since a year ago & love it so much.

Mostly I use the Triode mode for my day to day listening.

Cheers,

Jimmy

[No longer for sale. Klipsch Chorus in Walnut]

Hi tromprof,

Will you reconsidering to ship the Chorus into Chicago?

Cheers,

Jimmy

[Chorus I Speakers]

Thanks to an Alert in Garage Forum earlier this week, I purchased a nice pair of Chorus I speakers from Ebay. I just brought them home today after a 5.5 hour round trip drive. It was well worth the drive for me, as they are as nice as described in Ebay listing. I currently have them hooked up to a Parasound based system. Not certain what I will end up driving them with. I snapped a few photos of speakers tonight. I'll take a few more tomorrow after I've cleaned them up a bit. I've had several Heritage speakers in past, but believe these may be the "optimum" model for me - given my room requirements.

Great find. They are beautiful.

With those Parasounds, you will never want for more volume.

Bill

Thank you - I feel fortunate to have found a pair "somewhat" local in such nice condition. I had purchased a mint pair of Forte II speakers last year - sold them to the son in law of respected Forum member shortly after I purchased them. These are very, very close to same mint condition. I organized my system this morning - have the Chorus about 8" to 11" off rear wall. Will listen for awhile and see what I hear. Hoping they sound nice close to rear wall, as this was primary reason to change out speakers in this system. I have a pair of Magnepans on the perpendicular wall - sitting out 60" from rear wall. I needed to free up some floor space.

Hi cjmustang69,

Since you had Forte II before & now you have this Chorus I, which one do you think is better in sound/sonic wise especially for accoustic music/jazz?

I'm in the middle of deciding which one to buy...

Thanks & cheers,

Jimmy

Jimmy,

Difficult for me to make a true comparison of the Forte II to Chorus I speakers as my upstream equipment is totally different for the Chorus speakers versus the Forte speakers I owned. The Parasound amps/preamp I'm using with Chorus speakers is at least 2 steps above any front end I ran with the Forte speakers. I will say the Chorus seem to be able to let the quality of the upstream equipment show itself - to me showing the capability of the speakers. I honestly don't believe you can go wrong with either model. I would say a key consideration for choosing would be the room you plan to use them in and placement options/restrictions you have. While level of bass is often debated for Chorus I - I find bass to be quite good as long as you can place close to rear wall. Obviously, the Forte II needs to be off rear wall to sound correct. Good luck with your decision.

Thanks cjmustang69...enjoy your Chorus...cheers!

[Cornin with Dynaco]

Over the years, I've heard so many things(warmth, plays well with horns etc..) about tubes and like the Beekster said, I just want to experience them in my home.

Ok, kind of an experiment then. Of course we can't predict what kind of sound qualities others will like, so I would take this on from a different angle - what's the most "tube'ish sound" you could try, which would best show off the tube qualities? What experiment will give you the greatest insight into how tubes differ from transistor amps? Then, if you don't like that, there wouldn't be much sense going forward with it. You would have heard the example of "good tubes" clearly.

To that end, I would begin with Single-Ended Pentode (SEP) amps that feature no feedback. I think they offer the best window into tubes that you can buy on a modest budget. The most common recommendation, and one I used to make all the time, is the old Dynaco Ultralinear amps, like the ST70, MKIII and SCA35. But, ultralinear amps aren't really that close to today's state of the art in tube amps. Yes, they are good, and yes you can get lots of watts per dollar, but watts per dollar isn't the best way to show the strength of tube amps. A classic Single-Ended Triode (SET) amp would probably cost more than some of the new SEPs, and so for that reason they would be my second recommendation if you can find one in your budget.

A typical SEP with no feedback and really good transformer and caps inside, will demonstrate the beauty of tubes very well. The fine grain, the exquisite detail, the openness and see through clarity is common to these amps. You compare this to your SS amp, and you will say, "Oh, now I get what this tube thing is all about." It will be very obvious.

The Dynaco and all the hundreds of "ultralinear clones" fall behind the SET, SEP, in the finer points of tube sound, but they do offer more power. And to be clear, "more power" was the exact driving force behind the design of the ultralinear amps. On acoustic suspension speakers, the ultralinear has a clear advantage over SET/SEP. The cool thing about horns is that it opened the door to these better sounding, but less powerful designs, like SET/SEP.

Thanks for the recommendations however it's full steam ahead with the ST70, yes, there is a winner of the two.

I decided to get Bob L's advice and much to my surprise, he said I should go with the lower priced ST70.

Sadly, they do not keep wired boxes in stock, it will take up to 3 weeks from the payment date.

I am SO excited, my very first tube amp! Perhaps down the road I'll give SET amps a shot who knows.

I'll post pictures and my thoughts later on.

Thanks again to everyone!

RIGGED

Hi Rigged,

Have you checked with Bob that you could get ST120 with the Pentode (60 wpc)/Triode (30wpc) switch so you'll have option to your set up?

I got my ST120 from Bob last year and very happy with it till now. Mostly in the Triode mode (& using my Denon AVR), I listen to accoustic jazz/vocal & classical on my RF62 & don't notice any distortion (maybe because of some rolled-off?).

For the pop/rock, i switch it to Pentode mode which give me more "open" sound & found no distortion so far.

Best regards,

Jimmy

[Forte II vs Chorus]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the advice...

Cheers,

Jimmy

[Chorus I Speakers]

Thanks to an Alert in Garage Forum earlier this week, I purchased a nice pair of Chorus I speakers from Ebay. I just brought them home today after a 5.5 hour round trip drive. It was well worth the drive for me, as they are as nice as described in Ebay listing. I currently have them hooked up to a Parasound based system. Not certain what I will end up driving them with. I snapped a few photos of speakers tonight. I'll take a few more tomorrow after I've cleaned them up a bit. I've had several Heritage speakers in past, but believe these may be the "optimum" model for me - given my room requirements.

Great find. They are beautiful.

With those Parasounds, you will never want for more volume.

Bill

Thank you - I feel fortunate to have found a pair "somewhat" local in such nice condition. I had purchased a mint pair of Forte II speakers last year - sold them to the son in law of respected Forum member shortly after I purchased them. These are very, very close to same mint condition. I organized my system this morning - have the Chorus about 8" to 11" off rear wall. Will listen for awhile and see what I hear. Hoping they sound nice close to rear wall, as this was primary reason to change out speakers in this system. I have a pair of Magnepans on the perpendicular wall - sitting out 60" from rear wall. I needed to free up some floor space.

Hi cjmustang69,

Since you had Forte II before & now you have this Chorus I, which one do you think is better in sound/sonic wise especially for accoustic music/jazz?

I'm in the middle of deciding which one to buy...

Thanks & cheers,

Jimmy

[Forte II vs Chorus]

Dear All,

I'm Jimmy and I'm new om this Forum.

I need some advices regarding Chorus I vs Forte II. I've been using RF62 for the last 5 years and now time to get some "upgrade".

I've been watching these two on ebay and have been contacting with both seller & unfortunately I won't be able to do audition on both.

The asking price for both are $695 (Chorus I) & $895 (Forte II).

Whichever I will buy, I'll power them with my tube amp VTA-ST120 (60 watts/channel) & pre-amp tube SP12.

My room size is quiet large 14' x 25' where I put my current set up in fornt of the 14' wall.

For longer run and I'm not looking for upgrade the crossover very soon, which one you guys think is more "suitable" for me & which one is more "tube-friendly" ?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Jimmy

Oh by the way, I'll be using these for 2-channel audio only.

[Forte II vs Chorus]

Dear All,

I'm Jimmy and I'm new om this Forum.

I need some advices regarding Chorus I vs Forte II. I've been using RF62 for the last 5 years and now time to get some "upgrade".

I've been watching these two on ebay and have been contacting with both seller & unfortunately I won't be able to do audition on both.

The asking price for both are $695 (Chorus I) & $895 (Forte II).

Whichever I will buy, I'll power them with my tube amp VTA-ST120 (60 watts/channel) & pre-amp tube SP12.

My room size is quiet large 14' x 25' where I put my current set up in fornt of the 14' wall.

For longer run and I'm not looking for upgrade the crossover very soon, which one you guys think is more "suitable" for me & which one is more "tube-friendly" ?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Jimmy