jkull

Yes. Circuits are built around the implementation of particular valves. They seldom will come equipped with the optimum valves. Example. I’d be willing to say any amp utilizing a shuguang/psvane 12ax7 can benefit by using instead, vintage telefunken, rca, or mullards. When talking other tubes by shuguang/pavane, like an 845 or 805 triode, sourcing better built ones will still yield improvement but not as vast of an improvement over the stock ones as their 845and 805 tubes are much better than for instance their 12ax7.

You ‘should’ love the amp. I own the 219, paired to cornwalls. Wonderful pairing. Changing tubes will also improve things. Change out the 12ax7’s off the bat, significant improvement. I personally have old smooth plate telefunkens.

Haven't been here in a bit. I also own a LM219ia. Love the amp with my cornwalls. I have telefunken smooth plate 12AX7's like the other user in this thread, as well as KR audio 300B's. I swapped in a NOS pair of Wester Electric 310A's for a few months to find that the stock shuguang build 310A's work just as well, and that there is no justifiable difference in tonal quality so I put the stocks back in and resold those 310A's for twice what I paid. I have the LM502ca DAC paired with it with NOS tubes and love the combo. An amazing DAC by all means. Vinyl setup was not together in this photo as I didn't have am my 'audio stand' table thing up yet lol.

They do, but the costs of some of these are sort of funny. And I agree with you about magnolia. B&W's are risky speakers so I've learned. Mine bled my ears with my emotiva's. I'd make it through one side of a record and had enough.

I thought you were going to come back at me again and this thread was going to get unnecessarily argumentative. But you didn't, so thank you, and I issue my respect for that. i agree that acoustical strings are found to more than not, with tubes, sound rather beautiful. I find the sound of horns and acoustics quite nice with the LM219ia thus far. I personally think some of the most outrageous gear are the humongous SS mono's out there calling for 15-20k by the likes of Pass or Krell etc.. I'm sorry but I feel like the production of many lower sensitivity speakers propels the production of larger and larger SS amps to be able to drive them, which, even though watts or fairly cheap, the companies don't always play it that way. Thus you have the 700lb Master Reference amp from krell that cost $120,000. Yes that is the far extreme of things but how unnecessary!

Why are you over analyzing my use of funds? I spent far under $7500. I did not purchase this amp to 'allocate an amp without hum'. There are plenty of amps that will not hum with cornwalls, the XPA-1 not being one of them for me personally. There are people that pay $8000 for a pair of cables man. Not that this matters, but we are talking about a very well built, point to point, dual mono, integrated SET amp for this price. If you do pay that full price, that is. I stated earlier in this thread my desire for a tube amp. Why? Bc I listened to a few and the difference between tube and solid state is audible. Accurate reproduction is not the end to all goal. The goal is a pleasing listening that makes you want to remain listening. This often means realistic production sure, but there are so many other characteristics that are important. Whether added distortion produced by valves enhances this ability or not, does not matter. It is clear that either your ears are inefficient in the sense of hearing differences in the characteristics of tubes and solid state, you have not spent time to do so yourself, or you're just too hung up on reading specs sheets. I posted a video a few pages back of a video showing two setups, same speakers, high end SS and high end tube design. They are the same manufacturer through the same sources, same speakers, same rooms. The reviewer and distributor have their choice (the tube amp), and the 'average' listener should be able to depict which sounds better from a low grade video like itself... well perhaps not yourself, as you are within the self proclaimed audio illuminati it appears, and you know all of the answers. lol I went with the LM 219ia because I decided I wanted to go the single ended route. I wanted a SET with more wattage than the 'average' SET amp. I wanted an amp with large transformers that can drive a large range of speakers to keep options open if I ever felt the need. This amp has been said to drive even quite low sensitivity speakers well. I wanted an amp that appealed to me visually. I wanted an amp with extremely positive feedback from individuals who had spent time with the amp. And lastly, at a decent price, which I paid. Perhaps I should sell it and go purchase a $100 soundbar for my dedicated music listening time, as no matter what the route, it is evident that you would find some way to analyze, depict, or irrationally and comically denigrate my actions into, why this or why that. What is it that you would have preferred me to purchase? Are you familiar with Alan Shaw, and do you follow and endorse many of his silly audio philosophies and theories? I am simply struggling to find the emotiva model l, to which you refer, that costs roughly $30 brand new.. (1/15th the cost which you have indicated). Let alone a pre amp is still needed, so an integrated amp at that, for $30. Please point me to this miracle price point piece my friend... ...It's too good to be true and must be audio bliss! . . . This comment by you was unnecessary. You went from appropriate discussion to being vindictive; "I certainly would feel an amp that hummed would be inferior to one that didn't.Doesn't take specs to figure that out. ". Come on now... You start off claiming that you think it may be something else in the chain causing the hum, and not the emotivas, which statistical measurements, which you love, have shown to be noisy circuits. You then change to perhaps agreeing at some point that maybe it is was the amps after all then jumping to the statement I just quoted above, honing in on that I eliminated the hum by purchasing a $7500 amp. Quit clowning. . (Note the poster above this post had the same experience with his emo amp into his cornwalls. Wait, must be his poorly shielded and poor capacitance RCA cable!).. Note the multiple users in this thread alone which have found a desired result in tubes with cornwalls. Not to mention the abundancy of them on this forum

Exactly. There was nothing wrong with my emotivas. They are noisey circuits period. And the cornwalls revealed it. I have absolute silence with the 219ia into the Cornwalls.

The amp is not 15X the cost of the Emotiva. The emotivas being $1100 a piece brand new for XPA-1. Thus $2200 for a pair. So in my particular situation, around 4X the figure. Perhaps you are speaking in comparison to a multi-channel xpa-5 or 3 something else. Oh lets also in mind, this amp is TWO true monoblocks, as well as a pre amp. So now factor in the cost of the Marantz 7701 when it was new, $1600. Now The price to replace the two emotivas and marantz for the LM was only 2X. So no, it gives me no pause. When emotiva amps break, buzz, fail etc., half of the time they go to the trash. Half of the time, you're spending $150 each way to emotiva on shipping. When a point to point amplifier breaks, I have a guy up the road who does this for a living, because amps like the mc225 that I considered, or this LM, or many other cleanly laid out P2P tube amps, are much easier to repair. There are far more expensive amps out there that yield much less of a reward. I did not pay $7500 due to a friend in the industry. The amp does sound better than the emotivas. I assure you of this if not anything else. The sound hardly comparable. There was nothing interesting in the emotiva's sound. It was dull, artificially enhanced, grainy, flat, and so on, in comparison. Would not the even funnier comparison, be spending of the said 15x amount on a macintosh SS amplifier as opposed to an Emotiva SS amplifier? I find the sillier pitch in hi-fi to be the bigger and bigger wattage amps with the lower and lower sensitivity speakers. Thus two components arguing with one another for what often tends to result in less than stellar and unnatural sound. Numbers sell. Seeing speakers in lower sensitivity, it opens up the market for amp designers to address this with higher and higher powered amplifiers. The numbers do sell, to some...

Indeed

The emotivas did not make any additional hum with my previous b&w towers. Only with the cornwalls. I have decent audioquest and blue jeans rca'a. The emotivas are sold and are driving old planars with their new owner without any additional hum. I read all of what you type and respect it. I understand the philosophies I've read, and am open minded to all opinions. Ultimately i dont care what specs say. This amp sounds better than my emotivas did in every way possible. Far more natural. The emotivas sounded fake, or digitally enhanced comparatively.

I'm unsure of the recommendation for experimenting with taps. My speaker are rated at 8ohms, thus I am connected to the 8 ohm taps, and that is all I intend to try. In my many years of experience with guitar and bass valved amps, i am always particular in matching impedance. 4ohm tap would be a big no no. The 16 would probably be okay, but if the speakers are not designed to handle this, it could damage them. I think I'm best sticking with the 8ohm tap, unless if it is I who is misinformed and not others. If so, enlighten me. i do not believe their was a ground loop issue. No connects were changed at all in the path aside from speakers. The cornwalls being far more sensitive... the emotivas were running into a healthy furman conditioner. I did troubleshoot for ground loops. No luck. I used to think my emotivas sounded good. Now that I have this amp I think they sound flat, dull, noisy, and unnatural.

I am using the stock tubes which are pretty decent tubes. I may just swap the 12AX7's in the near future. I hardly feel the need right now, as things are sounding great, and as you said, these tubes need time to burn in and loosen up. First things first, I need to decide on a new phono amp, and make a move on that. Considering the bottlehead Eros at this time.

I dont frequent there. Just had a thread going, but a few of the guys were helpful, pleasant, and supportive of the cornwall with the 219ia.

219ia has arrived.... And it sounds..........Absolutely wonderful. The allure of this amp glowing in my listening space alone is mesmerizing. What a cool looking amp. The dynamics that I stated as somewhat lacking in my current setup with the 500watt SS monos, are vastly improved. Drums have totally come alive. Voices have become more natural, and exceptionally SMOOTH. The bass still thick and driving well. The midrange FAR more cutting, present, clear, and clean, while staying smooth. The brightness of the horn tweeters is showing itself now, but it is a nice brightness, because it is smooth and pleasant. Everything just sounds more natural. I have listened for roughly an hour so far, all records. I will get around to more listening later this evening. The slight blanket over the speakers has been lifted. The sound is more inviting, open, and dynamic. Voices are FAR more into focus than they were. This thing makes my emotivas sound very poor...Low listening also remains dynamic and involving. The emotivas sounded like I was burying them in a grave and as I turned the volume down, I was throwing more and more dirt on top.... Volume level makes very little difference in dynamics with this amp. Hum that I was getting before is gone. The signal is dead quiet now, not even the faintest bit of hum. It was obviously the noisy circuits of the emotivas from what I can conclude. I am still running through my marantz 7701 phono amp. The phono I am most interested in going with is the bottlehead Eros. All tube with a gain of 50db. Very happy thus far....

The budgie is said to show a very small bit of hiss with the volume up, and is a little shorter on gain coming in at 37. The bottle head EROS is another nice option. All tube, with gain of 50...

Just looked them up now. $400 shipped. SET. And nice looking. Hmmm

Yes, the growl. Some supportive tonal bass characteristics that my 8" woofers in my B&W speakers just failed to produce, while the cornwalls on the other hand, do very well. A chunk of these tonal characteristics lie within that 40Hz - 100Hz range. I like this coming from my mains beneath the horn mid producing the guitars. It is a more balanced and satisfying reproduction for me. i will try moving the cornwalls out from the wall though. I haven't done much experimenting yet as I sold my SS mono's over the weekend and am ampless until the 219ia arrives via DHL at some point today actually.

I don't know that I'd have the experience to do it?!! I could maybe see if my guitar amp tech would build it.... what is the cost? 'Just' shipping?! Thank you

A healthy chunk of my listening is to heavy music. Crust/sludge/speedmetal/power violence etc etc. With music of this sort being a part of my everyday listening, I find that I like having the mains handle as much a portion of the bass as possible. With something like EDM, or hip hop, I would expect benefit in the sub covering a wider range for sure. This is what I find this far with experimentation with the cornwalls as I really love how they display the sound of an electric or acoustic bass. kind of get me here?

Oh alright gotcha. The marantz has line outs yes. I was running balanced XLR out of the marantz to the SVS currently. The 219ia amplifier is built in a TRUE dual mono block design. You can used the 219ia's built in pre amp, or run a different pre amp, and bypass the 219ia's pre. I will of course compare the 219 pre to the marantz pre. The 219's pre runs 12Ax7's. I will likely use the pre in the 219.

Okay now that you mention this, I'm going to go ahead and ask a rather basic and probably silly question... I am used to utilizing the sub out on my marantz pre currently. With the 219ia, what is my route for sub integration? Being their is not a designated subwoofer 'out', am I just running from one of the inputs on the back of the amp into the sub? This is probably self explanatory but I admit I don't know the answer. I have a SVS PB13 ultra. I suppose i just set the active crossover on the sub and let that be the crossover control, as opposed to have the marantz dictate the crossover. ? Thanks

I had originally purchased the 7701 for HT and 2 channel use. Now that I am focused toward 2 channel, I figure I should remove a source like this as it has a ton of video components etc within, that I am not utilizing. I am planning to use the preamp of the 219 instead. It's just a large AV component as the 7701 seems a bit unfitting in a 2 channel designated setup.