Tube amp kits... worth it?

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Tubes/K-12M/K-12M.htm

I saw this review, and was considering getting that kit. It goes for $210...

What do you guys think? Heard of better ones? And would they power up a pair of 8 ohm floor speakers good and loud? (not cranked, but say, heard from another room)

A top-end tube amp is worse than a midrange solid state amp, it's been that way since the late 80's.

Hmm... I've got handfulls of solid state receivers... but the only things with tubes I've had were AM & shortwave radios... Kinda wanna see what all the buzz is about... but I do like my Yamaha I use daily, and the Marantz I have in storage.

Tube amps color the sound. Some like the sound, and some don't. They also clip gracefully compared to solid state when pushed. They do tend to have higher distortion levels than most SS amps. They are best suited to drive mid range and tweeters, simply because of their low power output. Driving any substantial speaker would take a large tube amp with lots of tubes which means lots of money. If you are serious about building a tube amp then you will want to pick one that the tubes are cheap and still in production, because nothing sucks worse than being at the mercy of the used tube market. A good place to find help is the Tube DIY Asylum (just google it), there are lots of helpful knowledgeable people there. Good luck.

Would that mean than inferrior audio would sound better, because of the graceful clipping? Older rock albums, would those sound better? How about MP3s of old bootlegs?

Ben333 said:

Would that mean than inferrior audio would sound better, because of the graceful clipping? Older rock albums, would those sound better? How about MP3s of old bootlegs?

Click to expand...

Clipping is just what happens when an amplifier is driven to a point beyond its maximum power and it "clips" the signal down to compensate. In other words it distorts the sound. With tube amps, instead of a sharp cutoff like SS, the tube amp has a more rounded clip which produces a less noticeable distortion.

As for making bad recordings sound better, you are out of luck. The only way to make bad recordings better is to replace them with good recordings. This is why the source material is the most important thing in audio, as the final product can only be as good as its beginnings.

Rock can be good on tubes, but if you listen loudly then SS might just be the better choice. Tube amps work best with high efficiency speakers (95db 1w/1m or so), so speaker choice can be just as important when going with a tube amp.

Tube amps are nice and all, but they are not for everyone. With warm up time (30min or more for most amps), tube prices, maintenance, and not being power efficient, there are many drawbacks. But you won't know if they are for you until you hear them for yourself.

Hope this helps.

I use the Electro Harmonix 6C45 tubes with the WA7 Fireflies amp/dac and couldn't be happier moving away from SolidState amps. Love it over my previous Matrix M-Stage and Schiit Asgard. The WooAudio WA7 pairs perfectly with the Beyerdynamic T90.

Have to say I've always been a fan of tubes and tube rolling, but never got into it myself until I purchased the WA7. I feel the sound is subjective, either you like the tube sound or you don't.

If you want a decent kit check out the Bottlehead Crack and even thr speedball upgrade.

i skipped thorugh some of the thread, imo use a tube pre-amp into a newer a/b solidstate amp. the color of the sound is what lot of people like when they listen to tube-buffered pre's into their solid state amps or even just tube amps.

for the tube preamp, the one i would suggest, there are a few different versions. can only befound on ebay afaik littledot tube preamps, also have a 1/4in headphone jack.

The only real point of tubes is the unique sound they make when run at high gain. Get one that can run headphones and then decide whether or not you like the sound before investing in an analog input amplifier for running speakers. (The analog inputs on digital amps route your signal through a cheap ADC in order to drive the modulator. In contrast, a modern analog input amp chipset like the TAS5630 has a modulator that natively accepts analog.)

I suggest starting with a cheap tube like the 12AX7 and building a simple preamp.

Thanks guys, clears things up a bit

Mike (evilsizer), I might look into a tube pre amp... what you said sounds more practical.