Help. Looking for a Tube amp

[Tilnot]

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I currently have Polk RTiA7's, C-J PV-10A preamp and Carver TFM-25 amp. This would be my first tube amp. The room is 12' x 16'. Thanks in advance.

[admin]

First, welcome to the site!

2nd, what's your budget? Are you willing to go used or only looking at new products?

[Tilnot]

Glad I found you guys! My budget is $2500.

[admin]

Is used equipment an option? I ask as used equipment is often 50% (or more) off MSRP. You can get a lot more bang for your buck used, but you also risk not having a warranty and other problems.

[Tilnot]

New or used. Either will do.

[admin]

You can certainly pick up something like a CJ MV55 used for a fraction of your budget (there is one on audiogon right now for $1k) and will probably be a good match for the rest of your components. I don't necessarily think you need to spend a huge budget on an amplifier to power Polk Audio speakers. Polk Audio is nice (I use them in my home theater setup), but I would allocate more funds to the speakers than the Amp. I probably wouldn't recommend spending 2.5 times as much on the Amp as the speakers as at the end of the day, the speakers are going to have a bigger impact on the overall sound. Having a nice but moderately priced tube amp in your setup will definitely help the sound (nothing like the "tube sound"!) and but not break the bank. Just my 2 cents.

[Tilnot]

I know the polks aren't the best. Maybe I should upgrade speakers first? I just really like my CJ preamp so much I thought I would upgrade amp first. thanks for your input.

[admin]

If you have a $2500 budget I would probably get some new speakers, sell the polks to offset the costs. However, I would still recommend picking up a tube amp as it will significantly improve the sound (if you like the tube sound that is).

[pstrisik]

There's a Premier 11A on eBay right now. Bid up to $1580 with a day to go. I think that is the upper end of typical resale value, but it looks to be pristine. I have an 11A and love it (see my avatar). 70wpc, push-pull, 6550/KT120 based.

If you want to go the single ended route, Dennis Had (of Cary fame) is hand building some nice low power amps. Search closed eBay listings for Inspire amplifiers. The red one that recently sold is mine . $1650 new and signed by the engineer/designer! Suprisingly, it powers my AR2ax' (~87db sensitivity) with its ten watts. I listed at ~80db in a fairly large room. I'm not sure how much louder it would go though. But with more sensitive speakers, definitely louder than that.

[camusmuse]

I have always been a fan of bi-amping or tri-amping speakers, and with a a $2500 budget there are several possibilities if your a patient for good deals. Marchand(I think I spelled it right), used to and probably still does make good tube crossovers. You can get that mv-55 for the highs and still keep solid state for the lows if need be... I used to have a very similar set up for year or so, didnt have the tube xover, but I did run a very high end Behringer digital xover with time alignment(typically uses for concert venues).