My Journey on the Tube and Solid-State Amps!

 

When I was 5 years Old, My Dad had a chance to get an old NELCO Radio TATA's Tarana Tube Radio. I have been very passionate and obsessive about electronics since I was 5 years old and I used to see through the back cover of tube radios during the night time and it looked amazing. when my Dad takes me to electronic repairs shop and was literally obsessed with many tube radios that were put up there for repairs. It was really exiting to see how these were made and at times I break tubes and see what's actually inside lol . During those days I enjoyed the light coming out of the tube radios.

 

 

As the time moves on, I owned many Tube radios and other electronics and Many Tube Power and Integrated and Tube PA amps.  After I moved to Singapore, my journey began hunting on Tube and Solidstate and have tried many High end Solid states and Tube amps, AVRs and I do an AB testing and sell them if I dont like them based on my preference. Sound is Truly subjective! You can't say your's is the best among all, but you can say you like and prefer the way you have set up your system!

 

I have been thinking very long to buy and preferred Tube Amplifiers an did demo of more than 100's of tube amps which sounded more like Solid state to be even very very known and well established Power or Integrated Tube AMPS. In my Opinion, I have not heard a tube based sound from any tube amps that they make it now a days. These ICON AUDIO MB81 PP MONO BLOCK POWER AMPLIFIERS sounds exactly like how an Tube Amp supposed to be sounding and I wanted to give a try and the moment I saw them I fell in love with their sexy look at first site. 

 

😍A Lovely BRITISH ENGINEERING😍 The Best! Ever Heard through my Ears!😍

Icon Audio MB81 PP Mono Block Power Amplifiers - Analogue Seduction

 

My STEREO and HT Set up!

 

My set up may feels crazy to you all as I prefer to set up thing in my own way rather than following theories and etc from other people. Of course people have their own expertise we must respect them, but when it comes to your own set up, just follow your own mind as sound is so subjective to you only!

 

I would also love to share my experience on how I was able to change the overall Arcam AV40 (SABRE 9026 Pro) tonality to more Tuby sound signature for my Stereo Listening.

Setup Flow ----> Arcam (AV40 Pre Processor) —>Schiit (Always at full Vol, so it works as Tube Buffer) —> Gustard P26 (set at 75DB constant) —> Coda CX Monos Plus the Icon Audio MB81 Monos.

 

Tubes from Tube Amp Doctor:
Psvane CV181-T-MII/2/6SN7GT made pair (tubeampdoctor.com)

PSVANE 6SN7-SE GLOBE, (2 tubes paired) (tubeampdoctor.com)

KT77 from Gold Lion Genelax (tubeampdoctor.com)

 

This is just my Pre amp Section, I use 3 Pre Amps before it goes to my Coda CX Monoblocks. The Main reason I bought these CODAs as I didnt have budget. But CODAs not not bad they run at 50W of class A before it switches to Class AB. Unfortunately, I dont have a budget to make my Lovely Revels Salon2 to sound better as CODAs didnt match my set up. I tried so many Power amps all the way Until Krell EVO600E Monos and many other amps and couldn’t change anything or doesn't come to my preferred way of sound!

 

Finally I did order the Schiit Freya Plus and then Upgraded to better Tubes. As you all knew that Impedance matching in pre amp and Amps are very important. Since My CODA CX monos have 1kohm at BAL input (this is too low for any pre amp to match). You need at least 10 times compared to your output impedance of the pre amp.

 

For e.g. if you had a pre amp of 500 ohm output, you need to have at lest 5kohm and above input impedance in your power amp. And hence I chose Gustard P26 pre amp has 100ohms output impedance that matched with my CODA.

 

The Power amps with less input impedance are designed to run many speakers parallel that means they can go so low. In this case my CODAs are coupled with 36 output transistors with 150A peak current output and 900Watts at 4 ohms, 450W at 8 ohms.

 

Similarly the power amps with higher input impedance are designed to match with any preamps.

 

Finally my complicated set up (Arcam AV40 —>Schiit Freya Plus —> Gustard P26 —> Coda CX Monos &  ICON AUDIO MB81 PP MONO BLOCKs) After adding Tube Pre amp, the sound is Wide, Open, Lush, Warm, Airy and Great Tonality and came to my preferred sound signature.

 

 

Edited May 27, 20223 yr by jmjantony

When I was 5 years old, I only knew lollipop.