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Anyone listening to records through a tube amp?

CBearCBear 902 Posts
edited June 2014 in Strut Central
I picked one up at a garage sale and am pumping records through it. I'm mostly unfamiliar with tube amps and their workings. They are supposed to be the best way to listen to records. Aside from being more bass heavy, I haven't really noticed a huge difference from my fairly serious solid state system. Anyone else in the know about them?

Here it is:

  Comments

  • Otis_FunkmeyerOtis_Funkmeyer 1,321 Posts
    Haven't heard of that. But based on tube guitar amps, I would say they may add some compression. I would see how it sounds after using it for an hour, guitar amps can take that long to really "sweeten up".
  • LoopDreamsLoopDreams 1,195 Posts
    I've had a tube amp for a number of years. They have a different sound then solid state: more alive I guess. They're alot of fun cuz you can really affect the sound by trying out different tubes. Make sure you put the same class of tubes in as replacements though. The big power tubes look like they're EL 34's the small ones could be 12ax7's or 6dj8's or something else. All tubes will make a difference to the sound but if that is a push pull amp changing the fifth tube ( the rectifier) will affect the sound the most. If its linear and there is no rectifier you'd start with the 4 small tubes (ie start with the ones closest to the signal source).
  • CBearCBear 902 Posts
    Thanks for the tips! I will try some tube rolling one day.
  • dukeofdelridgedukeofdelridge urgent.monkey.mice 2,453 Posts
    My dad does. I would too, if I were to find a nice tube amp at a yard sale. How much you pay for it?

    related ramble:
    My grandfather was an audio guy at Disney. He worked on synching the music up with the movies, and they apparently were some cutting-edge motherfuckers. One day a guy came in to their lab talmbout an amp he'd made. An amp that put out X amount of this and Y of that, and was only yay big. The Disney dudes were like, "no you didn't bro. For real there's no way you could cram that much juice in that small of a space."
    Dude returned the next day with his amp, and they tested it. Turned out to be true. My grandfather considered leaving Disney and joining this guy, but didn't.
    He should've.
    Dude's name was McIntosh! Pretty neato story.

    My dad has a middle-of-the-road McIntosh 240. It's lived a life on the beach, so the cover's a bit beat but it still works great. The story of vacuum tubes is cool, with weird stuff like the Russians still used them in their fighter jets while the USAmans switched to alien technology or whatever, so a lot of the best tubes were coming from crazy places. My dad finally announced the internet was for real when he found a guy in Orlando with a warehouse of spare tubes ten years ago. Before that, it was find some weird tinkerer guy to fix on your amp.

    Yeah.

    They're cool looking. No going to make audiophile claims, but they definitely provide warmth when they glow.
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    I have a Bogen RF-35 that I just had rebuilt. And a Dual 1019 with ADS L710 II speakers. It sounds pretty damn good. One thing, it is less fatiguing than solid state. I can listen to it for hours. It also sounds good without having to blast the volume.

  • CBearCBear 902 Posts
    dukeofdelridge said:
    My dad does. I would too, if I were to find a nice tube amp at a yard sale. How much you pay for it?

    They're cool looking. No going to make audiophile claims, but they definitely provide warmth when they glow.

    $300.00. It's worth a bit more than that, so I don't mind checking it out for a bit. When I garage sale, I always ask if they are selling records or old stereo gear, even if I don't see any out. It often results in treasures. This specific lady used to date an audiophile and he made her buy this amp so they could listen to music when he was over. She used it for a bit, they broke up, and now she listens to her ipod dock. This amp had been collecting dust in her bedroom since then. I cleaned it up and it fired right up. It needs an internal cleaning which I will get around to. One of the channels works great, so I've just been using that one.

    Those stories are crazy. I love hearing things like that.

    I've built some pretty amazing vintage systems from garage sales and craigslist. I keep one in each room with an airport express so I can control all of them from my laptop or iphone and have whole-house sound. I picked up a Denon tape deck last weekend for $6.00.

    The glow is pretty damn cool. As are the threats of lethal voltages and flesh melting temperatures for the sake of clean sound reproduction.

    That Bogen looks great!
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    My father gave me the Bogen when my parent moved. He bought it new in 1964. David Bogen was known for PA systems but their home audio was top if the line, Bogen engineers went on to form Harmon Karden. All tube amp capacitors start to go as they get on in years, and mine developed a hum. I had a guy replace the power capacitors, clean all the sockets, replaced the transformers with Dynacos, check all the connections, replace the ground and check all the tubes. He was going to rewire some of the sockets for better tubes, but in the end he said the original tubes sounded better because tubes interact with other tubes in different ways and the Bogen engineers knew what they were doing. My phono stage uses Westinghouse 12ax7s and the preamp uses Mullard 6eu7s the phase inverters are Amperex 12au7s and Mullard 12ax7s and the main power are GE 7408s. The tuner uses various telefunkens and RCA tubes. There are 17 tubes in all. Tubes are expensive, probably more so than the unit itself.

    For a long time I spent all my money on records, but a good tube receiver and a pair of good speakers is essential. Go to Audiokarma and you can learn all about it. By a decent unit and find someone dependable to service it.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I have a Fender tweed amp that I temporarily hooked up to my stereo for kicks, just to see how it sounded.

    Sounded really good with music recorded before 1964. When I cranked the reverb, it had a "reprocessed stereo" effect that amused me for a minute.
  • gordon_gartrellgordon_gartrell 102 Posts
    I switched over to tube amps about 5 years ago and will never go back. The only thing they don't do as well as solid state is really deep, rock-solid bass, but that can be sorted out with a good sub. There's a ton of different types and designs and they all can sound vastly different. I've tried several different types and have worked with knowledgeable guys to refurbish old amps to proper specifications and use better modern parts. The difference between an old 50's-60's amp with original parts and one with updated caps and resistors is huge. And if you find one at a garage sale, don't just go home and fire it up as you risk blowing it up as some of the old parts may not be able to handle having 120V put into them. Have it looked at by a tech. Also, most new production tubes don't sound very good and many of them are crappy unreliable garbage, old stock tubes make a considerable improvement (but they can get really pricey). And I agree that upgrading the rectifier tube can make a massive improvement to the sound.

    For now I've settled on an amp that uses 45 tubes, with a preamp that uses 6J5 and 6SL7 tubes. These are all very old tube types from the 40's-50's, but the sound is unbeatable. The 45 amp only puts out about 2 watts, but it's amazing. You just obviously need the appropriate speakers to pair with them, likely horns. But when you hear a good tube system, and this doesn't have to be a mega $ setup, just well put together, you may have a hard time listening to anything else. If you can justify spending several hundred dollars on a record (and there's nothing wrong with that) then you should seriously consider a quality system incorporating some tubes (and a decent turntable and cartridge). Your ears will thank you.
  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    New rig for the downstairs play room. 1960 Voice of Music Push-Pull Stereo Amplifier. Three 12AX7, one EZ81 rectifier and a quad of 6AQ5s. About 13 watts per channel. And a Sherwood S-3000 tuner, mine has a black leather topped case. I have a pair of Scott S-15 speakers I need to refoam - one I figure out hos to get the damn grills off. I'm looking for a turntable. I use a Dual 1019 upstairs, so I'm looking for something different but in the same price range.




  • CBearCBear 902 Posts
    Very nice! That voice of Music amp looks great.

    I'm putting new boards in a Dyncao SCA-35 this weekend. The amp isn't doing well, and the boards looked fried. This particular model was only available as a kit back in the 60s, and never sold pre-wired.
    Attached files
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