Heideana Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 It seems that most of the tube power amps I see put out 75 watts or less. What tube amps that are capable of putting out 120 watts or more? Audio Research seems to be the only brand I've heard of, but I keep thinking there must be some classic behemoth tube amps from the 60's and 70's that are fairly high-powered? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 This one is 165 watts RMS http://www.transcendentsound.com/Beast%20OTL.htm Most tube amps are actually less than 60 watts, typically they run 35 watts per channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 BAT has the VK-150's[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 VTL, but tube watts are not SS watts and horns don't need so much power, VRDs have great bass control for the money.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Conrad-Johnson made some doozies back in the day. VTL and VAC also sport high power tube monoblocks, and Quicksilver's V-4 is well thought of. McIntosh and Altec made industrial tube amps in the 160 - 200 watt class as well. The problem is high power in tubes rapidly becomes heavy and expensive. Plus they require high voltages and lots of cooling. Finally, and this comes from sad experience, when they go bad, they go bad big and expensive. And that doesn't include the fun of buying four matched pair of KT-88s every other year or so. I had an Audio-Research D-160 for a while. It sounded beautiful, with headroom for days and sculptural imaging. It really "sang" beautifully. It also, every couple of years or so, would shoot high-rise flames out of the power supply which would set me back about $800 or so. Still, if I was in the market for a high power tube amp, I'd start with the Quicksilver V-4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick4001 Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Here's some tube power for ya, these are my three bass rigs. combined - 18 GE6550A's, 900 watts and 24 10" drivers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser SET say Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Easy Duke[][] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heideana Posted October 17, 2006 Author Share Posted October 17, 2006 Thanks gang! I'm just discovering the joys of surfing E-bay and your suggestions give me a toe hold in the literature, so to speak....[H]. I'm pretty happy with the 60-90 tube watts I currently have, but I'd be a really happy camper if I saw something go by within my price range that gave me a solid 120 watts to give me a bit more head room...[] I'm also keeping my eye out on the tube pre-amp, as I could plug it into my Rogue until I got a bigger power amp if I wanted to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrench722 Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Dont forget good old McIntosh stuff.[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 I forgot about the Rogue monoblocks. I understand they're pretty good and have about 120 watts each. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drefrank Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Speaking of big and expensive (not necessarily in that order): www.tuberesearchlabs.com/products/gt800.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Here's some tube power for ya, these are my three bass rigs. combined - 18 GE6550A's, 900 watts and 24 10" drivers... AAaahhh ... I see yer 6550's ...... and raise you ... 2 ..EL-34's .....[] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnyholiday Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 The Flopppad Bass Rigg ,not tubes but pretty LED bars ,an 3/4 Klipsch,lets hook em all up, an call for chippys' air support Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 A rather more attractive offering from Greece: This is the Tsakiridis Electra (www.tsakiridis-devices.com). There are 2 main flavours (EL34 or 6550/KT88) with either 140 or 180 wpc. Prices are 2,200 euros for the EL34 and 2,720 for the 6550 - multiply by 1.25 for $. You can download the specs, brochures etc from the site. No affiliation with the company and all that - just a happy customer. Pricing is not as sharp as it used to be - they have gone a bit up-market - but still not bad watt/$ return for new kit with a warranty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 Here's some tube power for ya, these are my three bass rigs. combined - 18 GE6550A's, 900 watts and 24 10" drivers... Whassat hidin' on the floor behind them monstrosities... Rick ..... !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick4001 Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 It's a Sound City 200 Plus. 200W, four kt88's. I've got two of 'em. One I converted into a Hiwatt 200 clone and the other needs work... Rob Actually, now that I think about it, they'd make a great pair of 200 watt monoblocks. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 It's a Sound City 200 Plus. 200W, four kt88's. I've got two of 'em. One I converted into a Hiwatt 200 clone and the other needs work... Rob Actually, now that I think about it, they'd make a great pair of 200 watt monoblocks. [] egads man not sure what to say about that.... you could power the entire colter wall of sound with those two amps.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 The majority of above 75 watt tubes amps employ the use a 4 or more tubes per channel to reach the power levels. In my experience most of these amps sound like dung on klipsch speakers. They were built to power much less efficient speakers and sound like it. Of course I haven't heard them all but I have auditioned at least 6 to 8 here in my shop. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 NOSValves will keep that in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Spinner Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 The majority of above 75 watt tubes amps employ the use a 4 or more tubes per channel to reach the power levels. In my experience most of these amps sound like dung on klipsch speakers. They were built to power much less efficient speakers and sound like it. Of course I haven't heard them all but I have addition at least 6 to 8 here in my shop. Craig why not convert them to ...UltraLinear..... since there's Watt's to burn .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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