[sfox7076]

I demoed my Salks for a friend good of mine last night and he was floored with it hooked up to my Ultra 550.  He just got a new job, so he is growing up from his Sony HTIB and is likely to buy the Salks next month, but also wants to use a regular tube amp for the system.  Like me, however, he lives in NYC (Brooklyn this time) and can only have one system in his apartment.  He said he wants to use the tube amp for the home theater as well as two channel.   I told him that the maker of the Ultra 550 (AVA obviously) will be releasing a new tube amp shortly and it will likely be amazing, so he should look into that.  I am not sure that will go over well though.  I have never seen a tube amp in a HT setup.  Maybe I am just naive, but that just does not seem like a concept that would work well.  What do you guys think? 

[avahifi]

Note that the AVA Ultravalve vacuum tube amplfier is about 35 watts per channel so it should be used with a reasonably efficient speaker (87dB sensitivity or better).

It works amazingly well with the Salk SongTowers.

For most much less efficient speakers I would suggest our Ultra 350 hybrid amplifier (over 200 watts per channel).

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[jtwrace]

reasonably efficient speaker (87dB sensitivity or better).
Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

Frank,

What about 89dB 1W/1M with a minimum impedance of 4.7 @ 70Hz?  Listening to ALL kinds of music.

[ctviggen]

I personally think rear surrounds are completely unnecessary, but everyone will have their opinions on that.

I have an upstairs system and a downstairs system.  The upstairs system has two speakers; the downstairs system has 5.1.  The surrounds in the 5.1 add a tremendous amount of detail, spaciousness, you name it.  The difference between watching in two channel and watching in five channel is astounding. 

I couldn't imagine anyone being of the opinion that surrounds aren't beneficial for movies.

[sfox7076]

Hmm.  I guess I was just wrong about a tube amp in an HT setup.  For some reason it just seems odd to me to do that.  Do any of you run tube amps for HT?

Shawn

[avahifi]

jtwrace  the Ultravalve amplifier will be really happy with an 89 dB 4 ohm load, and so will you.   

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[ctviggen]

Hmm.  I guess I was just wrong about a tube amp in an HT setup.  For some reason it just seems odd to me to do that.  Do any of you run tube amps for HT?

Shawn

I will and have in the past run a tube amp for my center channel.  I plan on doing so again, once my room is finished. I also plan on moving to tube amps for my R/L speakers. 

[mchuckp]

I personally think rear surrounds are completely unnecessary, but everyone will have their opinions on that.

I have an upstairs system and a downstairs system.  The upstairs system has two speakers; the downstairs system has 5.1.  The surrounds in the 5.1 add a tremendous amount of detail, spaciousness, you name it.  The difference between watching in two channel and watching in five channel is astounding. 

I couldn't imagine anyone being of the opinion that surrounds aren't beneficial for movies.

I think it boils down more to each person's interest.  There are plenty of folks out there where HT is THE most important thing.  Many in these forums music is FAR more important.  Many are somewhere in the middle and each have to decide how much effort and how much sacrifice they are willing to make in either direction. 

I was a big HT guy a few years back and have since then ditched it all for strict 2-channel.  For a movie, yeah, having 5.1 is pretty sweet but it just isn't that important to me anymore cramming a sub in my set up and messing with HT Bypass products and all this is not my cup of tea.  I like it simple so I sacrifice the BIG low end and surround effects for movies because for me, it is "good enough" and the added effort and sacrifice isn't worth it to me for my 2-channel playback.

[simon wagstaff]

I don't think it is silly at all. I think the primary weakness in most home theater receivers is the amplifier section. Most of them have pretty good surround decoding and many of them have good two channel processing. I use a Pioneer TSX 59i receiver hooked up via firewire to a DVD 79i player. The two channel dacs on it are very good and the room calibration will correct any input sensitivity differences between the tube amp and rest of the system. One other plus to consider is if you are using a subwoofer then you can set the front speakers to "small" and the low end will be removed from the signal going to the tube amp, increasing the headroom and perhaps max volume.

for center and surrounds the amps inside the receiver will do just fine.  I am listening more and more to 2 channel music and the current combination of source, receiver and U70 driving Infinity Intermezzo 4.1 never fails to satisfy.

the U70 is really the best amplifier I have ever had in my system and also integrates well into the home theater.

[cdorval1]

I've been using the U70 with with Songtowers in our TV room, with excellent results.  We have a 2-channel setup, I gave up on 5.1 a few years ago.  Imaging is excellent, so that even sitting off to the side, voices are well-placed.  And the soundstage pleasantly and accurately surrounds the visual image.  It's hard to describe.  The frequency range is outstanding, and the bass is fantastic.  I also removed my sub a while back.  Preamp is a Transcendence 7, fed from an FM tuner, cable box and Blu-Ray player.

Craig