Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Tube tied

Does anyone have any experience using a tube amp (or integrated tube amp) with axiom's ? Currently I'm getting pretty impressive sound (to my ears) from my m60's paired w/ my older HK 45wpc receiver and Denon 80 wpc receiver. Have heard alot about the "warmth" of tube amps and curious if they would provide an appreciably different/improved sound versus ss amps/receivers matched with the m60's. I've seen the Onix integrated tube amp (h34) that I was wondering if it might be a good match. The sound would have to be quite a bit better that what I'm getting now to justify the $1295 price tag. Would for 2 channel music only.

this is where 2x6 ought to chime in...

2x6spds is a regular on this forum and he swears by tube amps. Depending on your listening preferences, you may also prefer the tube sound to solid state. Just be aware that tube amps are not as neutral as solid state amps when it comes to music reproduction. This is not in and of itself a negative thing, though. It's just a matter of personal preference.

I thnk Haoleb is a "tube guy" also. He's in Hawaii, so he won't be here 'til late.

also 'haoleb' is a big tubehead.. he could probably give you plenty advice on that subject.

if you want my opinion, $1300 bucks for an amp that is only gonna push 2 channels, sounds like a big waste of money to me..but everything is relative.

bigjohn

hey, quit stealing from my posts!!

bigjohn

Hey! You beat me to the draw all the time. Let an old guy win one now and then, huh?

Yes, PMB, sounds more like music. I've used Axiom M3s with a 5 wpc tube amp. They sounded wonderful. I also have had various solid state amps which I also like. Some of my favorites from past sand amps include Onkyo M-504, Kenwood KA9100, Yamaha M-80, Anthem PVA series. These are all high powered amps. My favorite amp was a 5 wpc integrated SET tube - Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15DT. I like the ASL amps because they are so musical and reasonably priced. Now, 5 watts may not be enough for you. If you need the power and have the funds, my dream amp is the Antique Sound Labs 200 Watt Hurricane monoblocks.



Some folks consider this the best amp in the world. AVGuide.com (my favorite review site) says:

"Perhaps once in a decade an amplifier comes along that achieves an entirely new level of musical realism, one that forces the reviewer to redefine the state of the art in reproduced sound. Such a basic monophonic amplifier, and from an unexpected source, is the Hurricane from Antique Sound Labs of China (Hong Kong). It is capable of producing 200 watts, and they are the sort of tube watts that suggest an even higher power. Given its performance, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a pair of these monoblocks to carry a price tag of $20,000, or more. At $4,400 the pair, it is beyond the valley of a bargain- a virtual steal."

Antique Sound Labs are offered by Divertech:

http://www.divertech.com/antiquesl.html


Tube amps clip softly so don't worry about hurting your speakers by reason of their low power output.

Thanks for the thoughts. Would like to see how they'd compare in sound quality / characteristics to similarly priced multi-channel receivers (such as denon 3805). I'm assuming the price/value relationship goes down as use is limited to 2 channel, but for my set up the ,60's are used only for music anyhow.

For tube amps..

10 KHz squarewave with a rotel amp:



10 KHz squarewave into an antique soundlabs SET tube amp



And the 'warm' sound perhaps comes from the rolled off highs after about 14 KHz..



Compared to a rotel RB-1080



Graphs don't tell you how good or bad it'll sound, but it does sort of show what people are talking about here when they say that tube amps are not neutral and that they have distorted sound.

I haven't heard a tube amp, so I'm not discouraging them, but just thought I'd share this info (from stereophile measurements) to show they don't give you "neutral" power.