LonestarBlues Posted June 14, 2002 Share Posted June 14, 2002 Hello Mobile. Has the Joplin 2a3 amp been delivered to you yet & have you been able to make any comparisons with your other tube amps? I am a lurker here & at the Asylum & rarely post. I am wanting to buy a tube amp sometime in the near future. The Joplin looks interesting. I am also looking at the Wright 3.5, the Moondogs & Audio Mirror parallel set amps. Magnetar at the Asylum purchased the 30 watt Audio Mirror amp & he liked it better than his Wright 3.5 2a3's. The Audio Mirror uses a Russian military tube 6C33. The 15 watt version uses 6H5C/6AS7G tubes. FS Audioweb on the Asylum carries them. There is also the vintage tube amp route. I have no experience with tube equipment. I own 1977 birch Cornwalls & 1983 walnut Cornwalls. I am using solid state Mcintosh-7150 amp, C38 pre- amp, MCD 7009 cd player, Pioneer Elite PD 65 cd player, MR 80 tuner & Nakamichi 480 cassete deck. I don't have my turntable hooked up right now. The gentleman I bought my birch Cornwalls from was a tube man. He had the Cornwalls in his secondary system hooked up to an EAR 859 set integrated amp-13 watts x 2, EAD transport & dac. I really liked the sound of tubes & Cornwalls. I like the Cornwalls with my ss Mcintosh but I am hankering to try out a tube amp. I have no soldering skills. If I go the kit route I am going to have an Electrical Engineer in Austin who owns a stereo repair shop do the assembly. They specialize in repairing vintage tube equipment. I like the Moondogs & Wright but I am scared that 3.5 watts will not be enough power if I get a wild hair and want to crank up the volume. I listen to jazz, blues, classical, rock, new wave & country. I like to crank up the volume every so often. The Joplin looks like an inexpensive way to enter the wonderful world of tubes. If I go the Joplin route I would go with the cap & resistor upgrades & Dact volume control. I have only heard a tube system twice in my life two years ago at Andrew's home. The gentleman I bought my first pair of Cornwalls from in San Antonio. I was drooling over his main system- Audio Research VT100 mkII amp, Wadia transport & dac direct to the amp, no preamp and some big beautiful Proac tower speakers. The sound to me was incredibly good as I have only read about this level of equipment. I have no practical experience with the different sonic flavors of tubes and tube amps-set, pushpull. Just information I have read. There are no highend shops here in Corpus Christi, it is a midfi wasteland of hometheater shops only. Thanks Kelly for your reply & anyone else with tube experience & knowledge that wants to reply. Regards, Mike ------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted June 14, 2002 Share Posted June 14, 2002 Man, it's early in the morning for thought today. Well, Mike, it is about time you jumped into the World of tubes as you might not want to return to solid state land depending on the setup. I just find that the Cornwalls really come into their own with tube amplification (so have so many others as well). Interesting post. I have ProAcs Mini Towers now as well and although my pair are not the models your friend Andy had, the entire ProAc family has similar sonic tendencies. I think ProAc are some of the most natural sounding speakers and they are the speakers orginally heard the single-ended 300B amps on back in 1990. They arent the Cornwalls, however, but they do sound better on a wider range of recordings and are very forgiving. As for the Joplin push-pull 2A3, it is coming my way very soon, hopefully next week. I will post my impressions online as more than a few have asked me about this amp and I have been wondering as well. I do know they are considering various mods to this amp such as the potential for tube rectification as well as choke options. On a quick note, I have been rethinking my opinion of a passive control. I used to be all for it and have had passive preamps since the 80s (along with tube active preamps when needed). The more I experiment and go back and forth here, the more I have come to really prefer a GOOD active tube line stage for the dynamics and bloom. Of course, the key word is GOOD. Mediocre preamps do much to bring a system down. PAssives do have great qualities and are preferable to many preamps if the amplifiers are sensitive enough. But lately, I have really come to prefer a good active stage with my tube amps, even if all the necessary conditions are met to enable a passive device. I still use passives but the nod seems to go to active stage if you have something good enough. The problem is, it is far easier to get great sound on the cheap with a passive device, hence the quagmire. I mention this mainly because the Joplin is run by the volume. I agree, if you ARE going that route, the DACT attenuator is a GREAT device and head and shoulders above any volume pot. As for what amp to chose, this is tricky. IF you can wait a bit, I will be able to make a good comparison between many of the amps you are considering as I have had most of those in my system. Although I have not heard the Audio Mirror amplifer, I have heard 6C33C-B Russian tubes in other amps. Tenor Audio had received rave after rave for their amplifiers that employ this tube. The last amp I heard with it at length was the Joule Electra Stargates, which are VERY similar to the Audio Mirror amplifiers in some ways. Both rely on parallel SET (although the Stargates can be switched), both come in around 30w, and both employ the 6C33C-B tubes. I can tell you, it is ONE CLEAN SOUNDING amplifier. Very clean. I can see why many liked it. Unfortunately, I also found it somewhat uninvolving musically, as did my buddy with me. To me, like a host of other top flight amps, it did all the HIFI with aplomb, yet felt more like a surgeon's scalpel. I am now not sure if it's this tube or not. But it just didnt stir the emotions like really good tube audio can, and not just expensive options. Over the years of spec buying, HIFI searching, etc, I have ultimately come to the conclusion that it is this quality that must be there to truly love the music and presentation and not just analyze it for its HIFI parameters. I have found specs to do a poor job of reflecting this (I gave up buying products from specs alone YEARS ago as this was a constant disappointment as machines were designed to deliver excellent specs at the expense of the sound, in addition to the specs not telling the whole picture - FYI, this forum can be VERY spec oriented). As said, I am not sure if the implementation of the 6C33C is at fault. This is certainly a VERY clean tube but in guises I have experienced, is not very involving in the midrange. As for your wondering about the volume, my modified Moondogs can really turn your head and have quite a bit of muscle (certainly more than the Wright 3.5, which is also a musical amp but does not have the bass extension). Drope me an email and we can talk some more. kh ------------------ Phono Linn Sondek LP-12 Vahalla / Linn Basic Plus / Sumiko Blue Point CD Player Rega Planet Preamp Cary Audio SLP-70 w/Phono Modified Amplifier Welborne Labs 2A3 Moondog Monoblocks Cable DIYCable Superlative / Twisted Cross Connect Speaker 1977 Klipsch Cornwall I w/Alnico & Type B Crossover system one online / alternate components / Asylum Listing f>s> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@silverfox@ Posted June 14, 2002 Share Posted June 14, 2002 A very probing request. and one that cries out for imformitive responce.I have to with draw my self from any authoritive comments.no knowledge of tube eqpt. Recently purchased De-wald amp and with the very limited exposure it has my cornwalls singing a different tune.Although there are some popping when turning off, and sometimes base is not always upfront,the mids,and highs are defenatly more open.and has me seeking to investigate the tube sound more thourghly. Mike I am really lookig forward to a very enlightened and imformed imformation from the member of this form.As there seems to be a strong reassurgence to tube, If only as a comparison. great topic. errol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobile homeless Posted June 15, 2002 Share Posted June 15, 2002 Tubes are glorified Tone Controls. If you want mushy, rolled off, dull, lifeless sound, be my guest. Nothing like buyin' an amp that you have to pay for over and over and over again. Hey, wake up everyone! It's 2002! ...indeed. kh This message has been edited by mobile homeless on 06-15-2002 at 09:38 AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted June 15, 2002 Share Posted June 15, 2002 Tubes suck. Buy a Krell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted June 15, 2002 Share Posted June 15, 2002 I just saw a cool movie that takes place inside vacuum tubes in an audio amp. All the characters are these animated electrons and its a kind of like those bug (insect) movies of a couple of years ago. After seeing this movie you will totally understand what is going on in your amp. There is a really funny part where these electron characters get lost and they read a schematic like a roadmap. It all starts out when the filaments get heated up and these Miami beach type electrons cannot stand the heat and have to flee by catching a flight out of there. Really funny stuff. -Honkety Hank ....Oh no, that was dream. Never mind...... ------------------ Cornwalls currently upgrading to all tube components Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted June 17, 2002 Share Posted June 17, 2002 mike stehr wrote: Tubes suck. He really means that "he SUCKS the air out of his TUBES". Must be the way he creates a vacume. Thats the only thing I could relate to this statement??? JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Lindsey Posted June 17, 2002 Share Posted June 17, 2002 Mike was making a joke. He has some tube amps himself... Mike ------------------ My Music Systems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted June 17, 2002 Share Posted June 17, 2002 He really means that "he SUCKS the air out of his TUBES". Must be the way he creates a vacume.It's how I cure gassy tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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