Bought a Dynavox VR70 and have a pair of mint Whafedale E70, I've listened to the Dynavox for weeks now and then changed over to my Marantz 1060. My opinion is the tube amp had a warmer sound but no base, where as the Marantz wasn't as clear on the top end but it had loads of base. I dont think I will be using the tube amp much, I prefer the sound of the Marantz 1060. The tube amp is a great looker though when lit up. I didn't pay much for the Dyavox thou, so not to bothered. Just wondered what other people think?
You want more bass from a tube amp? Listen to a 300B amp.
I've got a Marantz 1060. It's a nice amp I use in my shop to play the FM tuner or iPod. The 300B is for serious listening to classical music on vinyl.
When you find one amp that does it all, please let me know...
I've got a Marantz 1060. It's a nice amp I use in my shop to play the FM tuner or iPod. The 300B is for serious listening to classical music on vinyl.
When you find one amp that does it all, please let me know...
The 300B is a tube type. The type is a popular directly heated triode (DHT). Considerable expense is associated with 300B based amplifiers.
IMO, the 300B is euphonic and not especially linear. Other people have a different view. If your bank balance is very substantial, an approx. 16 WPC Class "A" push/pull 300B based unit could be very satisfying. Push/pull O/P stage topology will cancel the (IMO) excessive 2nd harmonic distortion a no loop NFB 300B generates. Refer to Lynn Olsen's work.
Again IMO, a bass lover would be very hard pressed to find a better amp (tube or SS) than a Harman-Kardon Citation II in good repair. The "Duece" is honest, not euphonic. However, at 60+ WPC, the 94 dB. sensitive Wharfedale speakers could cause hearing damage.
IMO, the 300B is euphonic and not especially linear. Other people have a different view. If your bank balance is very substantial, an approx. 16 WPC Class "A" push/pull 300B based unit could be very satisfying. Push/pull O/P stage topology will cancel the (IMO) excessive 2nd harmonic distortion a no loop NFB 300B generates. Refer to Lynn Olsen's work.
Again IMO, a bass lover would be very hard pressed to find a better amp (tube or SS) than a Harman-Kardon Citation II in good repair. The "Duece" is honest, not euphonic. However, at 60+ WPC, the 94 dB. sensitive Wharfedale speakers could cause hearing damage.
Yeah, Harman-Kardon Citation provides better low freq. response to most speakers.
Go, fetch one if you can. A Telefunken V69 even will beat this, if you have deep enough pockets. Dynavox is cheap asian tube gear. Don't expect superior quality from such amps.
Go, fetch one if you can. A Telefunken V69 even will beat this, if you have deep enough pockets. Dynavox is cheap asian tube gear. Don't expect superior quality from such amps.
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@Boblee1- I can't recommend Harmon-Kardon because I don't have one, haven't heard one.
Anyway, my answer got some others to respond with their opinions. That's what you were asking for.
Anyway, my answer got some others to respond with their opinions. That's what you were asking for.
Yes Thanks to everyone, and yes my pockets dont go that deep, but wish I could afford one, but the pension here in the UK is dismal. Rob
See if you can try out a secondhand Luxman L430 or higher model from that generation at home. I Imagine it will make you sell the other two. I dont know much about tubeamps, but maybe the impedance of the speakers has a big influence on the amount of bass from the Dynavox.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Luxman L430 couldn't be recommended to substantially better those amps. Its a japanese audio toy amp, no real world for first class sound and substantial bass performance like a good tube amp. I have used both, the Telefunken and the Luxmann many years before. Night and day. Real heavy amp vs. audio toyshop amp.
I recently performed a complete restoration of a Citation 2 for my neighbor's friend.
I can say that the amp is quite punchy and substantial.
And that includes its hefty weight as well.
It's not the underlying technology. It's quality engineering/manufacturing vs. Scheißewurst. I, fortunately, own both H/K Cit.2 tube and 250 WPC AVA FET-valve hybrid amps. Their voices are remarkably similar. 🙂 If anything, the hybrid is a hair better at playing bass and (IMO) that, primarily, is the power difference.
As a retiree myself, I fully appreciate the difficulty the OP has in acquiring "big boy toys". The overwhelming bulk of my collection was acquired as a reasonably well paid member of the labor force.
boblee1, some "dosh" has to be parted with to get anything truly decent. You have nice, medium efficiency, tube "friendly", speakers and your power requirements are modest.
Hopefully, other members will augment the suggestion I'm about to make. Look to acquire a Sherwood 7189 based S5000 integrated amp. Its 20 WPC is quite sufficient for your speakers and considerable quality went into the "box". Don't buy the more powerful, but not as nice S5000-II. The available/affordable Russian 6Π14Π-EB (6p14p-ev), AKA EL84M is a quite decent, true, 7189 equivalent that will keep a S5000 playing for the foreseeable future.I can only just add that, in retrospective, a Lux L430 was a remakable bad sounding amp despite all the stars and golden earpoints it accumulated in the magazines (watch three pages later for the Lux advertising, guess why?). It was in early days of audio career, early 1980s when this amp came out and those were the times when I swapped everyting constantly for "better" (mostly different sounding) gear and loosing money on every trade until once I managed to try real audio toys (means tube and heavy instead of audio gimmicks). At least the Lux was. There may be better transistor amps for bass reproduction but the Lux wasn't it.
A lot of a Wharfedale E70 bass performance is determined by:
The room dimensions
Where you put it into the room; corner, wall, out in the room, etc.
Citation 2 amps are responsible for keeping Surgeons in business . . .
Hernia Doctors.
Perhaps the E70 is heavy too. Be careful when you move it around in the room.
Surgeons!
Thanks for Surgeons! I have had hernia operations in 3 different places.
The room dimensions
Where you put it into the room; corner, wall, out in the room, etc.
Citation 2 amps are responsible for keeping Surgeons in business . . .
Hernia Doctors.
Perhaps the E70 is heavy too. Be careful when you move it around in the room.
Surgeons!
Thanks for Surgeons! I have had hernia operations in 3 different places.
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They give back specialists business too.
70+ lbs. of awkwardly placed weight will definitely get to you. However, the music "Dueces" make is effing good.I too have had inguinal hernia fixed; twice on the right side. 🙁
Marantz 1060
Had a 1060 some years ago. Nice amp, with musical sound. Sold it, stupid me!!
Had a 1060 some years ago. Nice amp, with musical sound. Sold it, stupid me!!
@Schmitz I believe you had problematic speakers when you discarted the l430. Did you not hear it in the shop before buying? I heard it with two sets of nice speakers with different placements. Sounded awesome from turntable. Im not a trained HiFi evaluator though. I will try a good tubeamp when I have sold all my surplus HiFi.
Cheers!
Cheers!
That time I was an audio noob. I mostly bought the winners in the audio gear charts that I could afford. The shop had a wall of cheap speakers for presentation, so no true single speaker listening was possible when buying those relative cheap gear. I've lost track about my speakers of those times, but maybe some Heco stuff with low efficiency. After that, I upgraded to an M02/C02 Lux combination which bettered this but never became truly satisfied until I auditioned the first tube amps and high eff. speakers. They better fitted to my idea of sound. Yeah, must have been a bad combination.