Hey, so I kind of blindly picked a cool looking all tube amp up off of eBay for a very reasonable sum, and it arrived today!
I've never had a tube hifi amp in my system (although I do own a '69 Fender Bandmaster guitar amp), and I wanted to see what all the fuss was all about. I've been into home audio for a couple of years, and in that time I've had a Yamaha HTR 5660 receiver, a Peachtree Audio Decco integrated, an Acurus DIA-100 passive pre integrated, and most recently, a pair of Tube Audio Design Hibachi II mono blocks (200 watt solid state), all of which I've bought used, none of them have been over $800, most closer to $500. I figure I'd rather spend a bit less buying used, and be able to try out different topologies and types of gear, see what I like.
So, this latest amp was on a bit of a whim. Fell within the general budget, seller seemed cool enough, so I went for it. Won the auction, sweet. Emailed the seller with a bunch of questions that I probably should have asked before bidding
, and he answered to the best of his knowledge. He shipped quickly, and within a couple of days, voila.
Slight hiccup, turned out that one of the transformers somehow came loose in shipping. Found the screws in the box, and took off the bottom panel to retrieve the nuts, which I quickly found inside. However, couldn't manage to screw the transformer back down (too much electronic stuff and wires in the way), so, f it, just left the transformer sitting on the amp in place. I'll get it dealt with at some point.
By the way, this thing weighs a TON! Was not expecting such a huge, heavy piece of kit. I'm talkin' at least 65 lbs, maybe more. It's got 4 direct coupled power tubes, 5 other slightly smaller ones, and 4 small (input?) tubes up front - as you can see, I have no clue about tube amps
. A little embarrassing that I bought this thing without knowing the slightest thing about it.
But it turns out that it is AWESOME sounding!!!! Now I know what the whole fuss about tube amps is. The midrange is super lush and warm, the highs seem a bit rolled off (but I have good DSP EQ in my DAC/processor to compensate), but the best thing is the holographic sounstage - HELL YEAH!!! My Dad came by (no interest in audio, he's a civilian) while I was listening the first hour. First thing he says - no prompting - 'hey, that music sounds really nice'. Total cliché, but totally true. The other thing that I was not expecting is that it is LOUD AS HELL with my 87 db sensitivity speakers. Huh? I'm talking maybe louder than my 200 wpc ss monos. I have it at 11:00 and it is cranking! How is that possible?
I emailed Pete McAlister, the designer/buider. I am the third owner, it seems. He said it's a class A single ended amp producing 12 watts per channel. I don't know if it's triode or pentode or what - and I honestly have no clue what any of that shit means anyway. I'm going to try and talk to him on the phone to find out as much as I can about it.
