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Author Topic: Matching Tube and SS Amps  (Read 2246 times)

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Offline nickgregory

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Matching Tube and SS Amps
« on: April 09, 2014, 02:03:21 PM »
so I am starting to look into bi-amping my VR-2s (with the intention to prepare for my eventual move to VR-4Jrs when I find a good pair/price).  I am currently running a CJ PV-11 Pre and a MF-80 amp.  My thought process is to get a tube amp and use the tubes to feed the mid/highs and the MF-80 the bass. 

My question is if matching this is as simple as staying consistent with a brand/wattage consistency?  or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Offline scb

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Re: Matching Tube and SS Amps
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2014, 03:34:08 PM »
Two amps can have wildly different amounts of gain, so my first though is to have a way to adjust the levels going to each amp. If one amp has 26db of gain and another has 29db, that's a 3db difference between your low end and your mid/high. You'll need a way to compensate for that, unless you can get amps that are fairly matched

Also, you have a tube pre already, right? Are you sure you want a tube amp, too? I'm not trying to talk you out of it at all, just mentioning that you already have tubes in the chain (though you already know that).

If you do, you're looking at buying a tube amp right now. One option would be to sell the MF-80 and then get a tube amp for your mids and highs and get a class D amp (or something cheaper than what you have now that isn't necessarily class D) for the low end. Class D is efficient and if you're only looking at putting something on the woofers, that should work nicely. It could also be cheaper than just buying a tube amp now. Hope I'm making sense

Offline nickgregory

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Re: Matching Tube and SS Amps
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2014, 03:50:07 PM »
Yup, my pre is tube.  I guess I should have stated what my end game is here.  What I have currently is the following

CJ PV11 Pre -> CJ MF80 Amp -> VR-2s

The VR-2s are currently biwired from the MF-80.

My endgame speaker wise is to get to the VS-4Jrs.  Given the fact that the 4Jrs have the split cabinet setup, I am thinking that I would probably want to feed them individually.  So my thought process was to identify the right amp to fit into my setup, so that I can move on the amp or the speakers, whenever the right piece shows up used.

Given all of this, I guess the piece that I had not considered is whether the tube amp would really provide me much of a benefit given the fact that I am running a tube pre.  Likely getting ahead of myself, but my enthusiasm to take my system to the next level has taken on new life with the addition of the CJ gear into the equation.  Pretty amazed with how different the system sounds when compared to what I was used to, running the Arcam integrated.

 

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