Tubes on the polk forum!

[madmax]

I saw tubes listed on the description of this section!!! Who has tubes? Lets get a list going. Bottleheads???

I'm here,
madmax

[-justin-]

I have a fender custom amplifier with TUBES! I love the red glow when the lights are out.

~JB

[madmax]

I forgot to list my tube equipment, Duh, that was the essence of the post.

Stereo equipment:
Luxman CD player with 12AX7 pre-amp out tubes.
Two Jolida 302A integrated amps. (left and right)

Guitar/keyboard equipment:
Marshall JCM900 guitar head
Bluetube preamp
Marshall tube microphone

[hatchm]

HT/Family Room:
Denon 2801 Reciever
Polk 5jr mains
Polk CS245i center
Polk R10 surrounds
Cheap sub I'm building from a Madisound 1252DVC
Sony DVD
Sony 5 disk ES series changer
Panasonic S-VHS VCR
XBox
Toshiba 32" TV (trying to talk my wife into HD Proj)

Living Room (mainly used for The Wiggles & Disney channel):
Old Sony receiver from college (mid-80's)
Cheap Apex DVD changer
Panasonic S-VHS VCR
Toshiba 20" TV
Bose 141 (only used for background music, my wife likes SMALL speakers)

Relegated to the garage until I get a den/media room (and the kids are old enough not to break them):
Bottlehead Foreplay (stock, just built)
Angela/JEL SE 2A3 (being built)
Tons of Radio Shack full-rangers (incl 1354 & Fostex 103) waiting to be put into some wood once I get the 2A3 built.
Zenith PP EL84 console I need to recondition.
Zenith 7695 integrated I'm going to recondition and put in a nice cabinet for my brother.

Lots of projects, too little time. Looking forward to hearing what others have though.

Hatch
Everett, WA

[gidrah]

Currently there's the GoldStar microwave and a few CRT loaded televisions, but I've got my eye out for a good deal on an audio amp or preamp.

[tonyv1]

My stereo rig:
Magnepan MG12
Parasound HCA 1500A Amp
Anthem PRE 2L Special Edition TUBE Preamp
Rotel RCD 951 CDP
MSB Link III DAC
Harmonic Technology Pro-Silway MkII interconnects
XLO Ultra 6 speaker cables

Love the way the tube preamp smoothes out the sound.
Would love to drive the Maggies with a set of Sonic Frontiers Power 2 or 3 Tube amps.

HT rig:
Polk Audio
RT 16, CS275, RT35 and PSW 120
Denon AVR-2700 receiver
Panasonic DVD
Sharp VCR
JVC 32D501 TV
Monster Cable Z2 speaker cables to the RT16
Home Depot 12 AWG everywhere else

[Aaron]

How do you like your MSB Link DAC?

Aaron

[tonyv1]

I love it. Noticed cleaner imaging and details. I was like listening to new CDs again. The Rotel has HDCD on and I don't even use that anymore. I have it wired so that I can switch between the CDP and DAC at the preamp. The next step is to get the 24/96 upsampling board (which will do 24/132).

[jeberhart]

No tubes in my home theater setup, but in the music room I have two guitar amps that qualify: A Tube Driver hybrid that has a clean transistor channel and a distortion tube channel, and you can combine the two if you want. Also, an ancient Fender Super Reverb tube amp, but can't use it right now because something is wrong; gotta get it repaired. Last time I tried to play through it, it about shocked the daylights out of me.

[madmax]

Probably about 400 volts! Be careful with that monster.

[jrausch]

Polk Audio and tube amps don't mix very well. I'm sure somewhere out there someone is using that combination. Tubes smooth out the music because there is no switching involved in the power source. Polk speakers (The good ones) are smooth by themselves. 2 smoothes make for an overly smooth system. I listened to a pair of SDA 2.3tl's on a McIntosh tube amp and was floored at just how crappy they sounded. No crisp/smooth highs and the bass was muddy and washed out. The SDA imaging was non-existent. The Klipsch Forte's they ran behind the Polk's sounded great though. I'm sure Dean can attest to that.

[madmax]

That is definately not the case with the Jolida 302A! Nothing is smoother and the sda effect is ever so slightly enhanced. Keep in mind that there are many tube designs out there. I have tried no other than the Jolida so I believe some will not perform well. Soupbone had a problem with the SDA function with the particular type of tube amp he was using as well. The list of reasons why a particular tube amp may not perform well is scary but if you luck into the right combination you will be in heaven!!!

Why some do not work well:
1: Output transformer is offers too high of a resistance between +/- terminals...loss of SDA effect.
2:Ground potential different between channels...loss of SDA effect, bias goes dangerously high.
3:Output impedance of the amp must be held closely...A resistor less than 200 ohms may have to be placed across the output terminals or the bias runs dangerously high. (older SDA's)
4:Tube combinations make all the difference...the chineese tubes my amp came with had less than reasonable bass response but changing to some of the more reasonable ones provided everything my Sunfire amp had.

madmax