[kingdeezie]

Hello everyone,

I had a question for all of you on the GR Research board. Would also be awesome if Danny could chime in if he has time.

I currently am using LS6s in conjunction with Manley Neo Classic 250s and a Purity Audio preamplifier. My room is pretty small at 18x12, and I sit probably about 7-8 feet from the LS6s.

Recently, I have been wanting to add back analog to my system, but I have a pretty profound lack of space for more equipment. In assessing all of my options, I have realized that if I want to do analog, I am going to have to condense the amount of equipment that I have.

I have been looking at moving to an integrated. Specifically a VAC Phi Sigma 160i with an included MC phono stage.

The problem I have, is that I would be moving from 250 watts of tube power, to a paltry 86 watts of tube power. I know the numbers suggest this would be a loss of 4 DBs of potential power.

Can the LS6s be run off of only 86 watts? Is anyone out there using lower wattage amplifiers with their LS6s?

Any advice?

Thanks guys in advance.

 

[Danny Richie]

The LS-6's like amps with a lot of head room and plenty of power. But then again your room is pretty small and it won't take much power to have them reaching high SPL levels. So it may not be a big deal dropping back to a smaller amp.

Try before you buy if you can so that you'll know for sure.

[cujobob]

When I was looking into getting LS6 at one point, I was told by Peter Mcallister that I could run them with his 75 wpc PP-150-8. Would I recommend doing so? Probably not, as I believe Danny mentioned better sound quality when he jumped up to his bigger amps. Other possibilities would include an N-Core or Class D amp powered by a tube pre (placed on top of it?). Less heat being put into room and more efficient that way, too.

[Jonathon Janusz]

King, sorry I don't remember all the details of your room layout (am I remembering correctly that this is a HT room as well as music?), but would a change of racking - going "up" instead of "out" - let you keep the gear you enjoy while expanding your source components, or is your problem a combination of equipment room and media storage causing the question of consolidating gear, or is it something more?

[Hugh]

How large is your room?

[Hank]

try before you buy

+1 absolutely

[kingdeezie]

King, sorry I don't remember all the details of your room layout (am I remembering correctly that this is a HT room as well as music?), but would a change of racking - going "up" instead of "out" - let you keep the gear you enjoy while expanding your source components, or is your problem a combination of equipment room and media storage causing the question of consolidating gear, or is it something more?

JJ,

It is a combination of a lot of variables. For one, I can't go up with my rack because it would block the projection screen. I could potentially go outward, but I would be facing a considerable cost to buying more racks for my components, I had Steve Blinn make me a custom rack last year and it can get pricey. Which is why I figured an integrated would be a good bet because it would free up considerable space, as well as elimitate power cables and interconnects as well.

How large is your room?

18x12

+1 absolutely

Might be difficult. The VAC integrated is generally an as ordered peice, and I do not have any local dealers that would let me demo it.

[Jonathon Janusz]

Maybe possible to add another rack of some kind in another spot in the room for the analog gear with (longer) cables running to the main rack in front?

Not that I'm trying to dissuade you from buying new gear ( ), but from a cost-benefit perspective, would it be more or less costly to change out gear or to change out racking?  I know quality audio furniture isn't cheap, but neither is the gear you're discussing in this thread.  Might actually save you money and end up further ahead reconfiguring the furniture?

Regarding the VAC gear, remember Art was running his 9's with VAC (admittedly the big ones), so you would be in good company in regards to sound quality (or maybe drop him a PM for some opinions if you can't get an easy demo; I think Nhan was by his place enough times to give a good opinion too).  The only other question, then, is headroom on the integrated.  This might be a dumb question, but is VAC really a build-to-order shop?  Any chance of having something custom put together by them in an integrated with a little more juice?

[harley52]

 If you'd like to go with  a tubed integrated a Mcintosh MA2275 may be an alternative. 75 w/p/c, $7500 new, $6000-$6500 used. The reason I suggest the Mac is they are very stable into all loads 2 ohms and above, made possible with their unity coupled transformers.And they seem to hold their value more than most others. Just a thought.

 Your 4db loss wouldn't be very noticeable though. And with the size of your room I'd think 108db-109db tops would be a lot. Even factoring in the headroom that would give you 6-18db for the dynamics. I really don't know for sure how many db's are needed for dynamics but, those numbers seem to be adequate or they sure would be for myself.  But, ymmv. It depends how loud you like your music for sure.

[corndog71]

If you want big tube power without big tube power prices then consider these:

http://www.tubes4hifi.com/bob.htm#M125



I'm planning on building a pair.

[bdp24]

For anyone running 8 ohm or especially 16 ohm speakers, I can recommend Atma-Sphere amplifiers. Though not cheap, they're less than a lot of high-end amps, and are available as kits. Sound really good, too.