Is there such a thing as an inexpensive tube amp?

[troutboy]

Another option is to go with a tube pre and a ss power amp. You won't need alot of power with the speakers, so you should be able to stay within your budget easily. This may whet your tube desires for awhile until you find the setup you want. I found a used tube pre for under $250 off ebay, put in a decent set of 12AX7's and fell in love with the combination. I eventually plan to add a tube amp, but after doing some reading and trying to decide where to start, the decision for the tube preamp was very easy to make. Best of luck on your purchases.

[Mike Dubay]

You can also check out http://dynakitparts.com/. I built a pair of MKIII's and was impressed with the quality of the kits. The ST-35 at 17pwc would be right up you alley cost wise. Kevin at dynakitparts can suggest inexpensive passive preamps for them.

[Wardsweb]

Here is a good link for some entry level DIY kits for not much money.

http://www.s5electronics.com/thome.html

[easyone]

I have very high regard for some of the amplifiers that I have owned that were built by Will Vincent. He restores vintage pieces and does a fantastic job in my opinion. He sells some items on Audiogon under the user name "autospec". If you contact him he may have other items in the process of being restored that have not been spoken for. Here is his audiogon link: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/search2.pl?seller&Autospec

No affiliation other than being a former customer.

[runninshine]

I have been following this thread because I am very interested in a nice valve amp for either my LS's or Corns. I have reading as much as I can and checking the links you all have posted. I was told to buy a Mcintosh but now I dont think I will because of what some of you have said.

I bought a very cheap tube amp by Meng da. It sounds nice and clear at low levels but lacks bass and just does not seem to cut it. I dont really want to spend more than a grand, so I have been trying to pick up a Carver Cm-1090 and run it with a Carver C-19 Preamplifier for about $750. IS it smart to run the ss cm 1090 with the tubed preamp? I would see why it would be nice for the phono stage, but wouldnt be better and sound cleaner if both were tubes?

[troutboy]

The reason i am went with a tube pre with a ss amp is because the two speaker sets i am using are low efficiency (mid 80's) sets that require quite a bit of power to make them perform in the system. The cost for a tube amp to provide that same amount of tower would be pretty expensive from what research i have done and in my advancing middle age i am hesitant to drop that kind of money on a single piece of equipment. This system is on all night as background because of some other things going on also, which would probably be not that wise with a tube amp because of the drain on the tube life. The preamp tubes only cost about $50 to replace all three whereas prices on some of the power tubes scare me enough to stay with the ss amp. The change from a ss preamp to the tube preamp gave the system more detail and crispness for lack of a better word. It works wonderfully well with classic jazz and classical music, but doesn't really do much for me with rock and pop music. With either of your speakers a low wattage class A setup would be wonderful for sure.The only way i could consider going to a tube amp would be to upgrade to much more effiecient speakers. I get super clean power from the ss amp with the nice warmth from the tubes in the preamp. Good combination to my ears.