Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo any one using Tubes with Axiom M80's??

Good to hear from you John..

Randy

ps: Rick, sell that boat and get the tubes.

I apologize for resurrecting a dead thread but I always wondered what my m80's would sound like if I had a tube amp. Can someone describe what the axiom speakers sound like when running on a tube? I always got close but for budgetary reasons never pulled the trigger on a decent tube amp. For the record, the two best systems I have heard were running off a tube amp. One was with B&W Nautilus floorstanding speakers and the other was running with older floorstanding Thiel speakers.

Those must have been HUGE tube amps.

Actually, not really. I don't know how many watts the one connected to the Thiel drivers were but the ones connected to the Nautilus drivers was I believe 27x2.

There hasn't been any startling new development in this area of audio technology and the factual information provided three months ago isn't in need of amendment. What was true then still is: amplification should make sounds louder without otherwise audibly changing them. Competent engineering does this regardless of the nature of the output device. Tube amplifiers when correctly designed can be competitive with solid state amplifiers in sound, but not likely in price.

Hello Spiroh

I've driven a pair of M3Tis with a 5wpc Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15dt tube amplifier (in Single End Triode mode). With a Velodyne subwoofer, it was audio bliss.

The M80s are a more challenging load. I'd go with a Prima Luna or Mystere, or Jolida Single End Triode amp in the 20-50 wpc range. Depends on your budget of course.

You're in for a treat. Not all solid state amplifiers sound the same. Not all tube amps sound great. It is a world of audio color out there. JohnK lives in a grey world, where all solid state amps sound the same and all tube amps are junk unless they sound like solid state amps.

Enjoy the music. Trust your ears. Avoid audio dogma. Don't be intimidated by audio dogmatists.

I grew up in a house with a solid state McIntosh while my uncle had a McIntosh tube amp. It was always amusing to see my dad and uncle argue about whos was better.

Nice to know I'm in good company. What's remarkable about the Mac amps is how they sound so similar whether solid state or tube design. I've always suspected its because of the autotransformers that they use in all their amps. Nevertheless all the Mac amps have nuances to their sound. Since I made that post I traded in some gear for a pair of solid state MC501 monoblock amps for a tighter bass sound, though they lack some of that air and mid range emphasis that you get from tube amps.

Nice to see you post, John.

I heard a pair on paradigm speakers with this amp and they sounded fantastic and the price on this amp is great and he also had the tube phono preamp.

http://cgi.ebay.com/YAQIN-MC-10L-Push-Pu...#ht_2584wt_1163

Im thinking about buying the amp to power my M80`s for 2 channel .