lonebuck Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Hey Guys,After 27 years, when I bought a brand new pair of LSBLs in 1980, I'm just now wanting to experience tube sound (I have apparantly been in SS bliss wirh my LSBLs for many years without knowing anything else). I am looking at several integrated tube amps: Sophia 300B Integrated (wife loves the looks and they supposedly have the best output tubes), Mcintosh MA2275, Cary 300 SEI, Cayin A-88T or any other suggestions you might have. I guess separates are still the rule in the tubular realm, but I would prefer a "one-box solution" as I don't intend on getting rid of my Marantz SS gear. I'm very good at buying; lousy at selling. Don't know what would really sound the best with my system. Heard wonderful things about SET amps. I suppose I'm a prime candidate for an "entry level" push-pull amp, but I'm not sure I'm willing to go through the learning process to ""tune" the amp by changing tubes to my liking. I live in a very rural area of the Texas hill country, so a demo is difficult. Any advice would be appreciated, Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I own both a Cary and a Mcintosh, either will bring your LSBL's to life. The Cary's are lower in price, but high in value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WopOnTour Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Budget? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Sea Dog has a tube get together in the Dallas area every now and then. AK audio enthusiast show is in Detroit in March and NOS Valves will have LS with tubes in his room . Allot of good reading in old threads in this forum about tubes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joemcten Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 In my former life, I owned '79 Lascalas and drove them with many different set ups. I had great results with McIntosh solid state. I enjoyed them in that set up for quite a while. I then decided to add a tube amp to the mix. I used 2 different tube integrateds until divorce forced the sale of the LaScala's. I found the sound with my FIsher X-101(modded by Paul at BizzyBee) to be a great match. I was in a large room and things just seemed to really bloom with that unit. Very listenable and dynamic. Do not remember feeling that I needed more power. I had equally impressive results with a modern Audio Research CA-50 tube integrated. The one box solution is very attractive solution and can be great sounding as well. For what it is worth, I did own a Cayin A-88T and found it to be a wonderful amplifier. Very well built with(to my ears)a warmish vintage sound. Did not have my Klipsch at the time, so I cannot comment on how it would sound with your LaScala's. The remot option on the Cayin is nice as is the ability to switch between Triode/Ultralinear on the fly. I will be curious to read about what you end up doing and your impressions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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