Tube amps

Hi I am new on this forum, after having replaced my Magnat all ribbon 8 speakers after 30 years, with the Q acoustics 2030 I heard from my friend Lerxst, who tried a tube amp that the sound was great as I am on a budget but always wanted to try a tube amp, I tried the Chinese nobsound NS-01P so I unplugged my Arcam Alpha 8 pre amp and added the Nobsound, what a world of difference, after playing around with tubes I added the JJ ECC803s gold pin tubes, and that gives a quite respectable sound, I am surprised that tube amps are not more popular in hifi.

Hi Rob and welcome to the AOS forum.

I think you will find quite a few folk on here have tube amps and can give you some budget recommendations.

Tube amps are popular in hifi

I have a Audio Innovations 500 integrated and a John Wood KT 88 power amp :)

Also have a pair of Quad 11 's nearly forgot these :doh:

Hi James,

Thank you for your reply, I meant that only people who are actual hifi enthusiasts are aware of the possibilities of tube amps, in general you don't find them in the shops, you have to dig deeper in hifi to find them I have the Nobsound ns-01P, and my arcam Alpha 8 has not been used since I switched that amp on, the sound is so much better. I stream from my MacBook via USB to my Misical fidelity Burr brown dac into the Nobsound to my Arcam alpha 8 power amp. My speakers are the q acoustic 3050 floor standing speakers, I am quite happy with this setup, I just wonder if an usb to coax adapter would better the sound, as usb can only handle 24 bits 96 kHz and coax can handle 24 bits 192 kHz.

Sorry I can't help you with your digital cable connection question, I only use analogue equipment.

I am sure a digital techy on here will suggest the best way to go.

you can get them, and of varying quality. you might prefer it but i doubt it. i would only use one if it was needed

I'm a big fan of USB to co-ax converters.
In my experience the USB converters onboard kit aren't very good and even a fairly cheap Chinese converter is a noticeable improvement.
As for a Halide Bridge - the phrase night and day really does come to mind. Not cheap - typically around £170 used - but well worth it in a good system, imho.

Rob, I've a cheapo Muse USB converter lying around similar to this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252479837427

I'd be happy to loan it to you to try out if you PM me your name and address.

Hi Rob and welcome - you finally joined AOS!

Good to see you here mate
:carrot:


Chris

Hi Jerry, that is really friendly off you, I am just looking at options as my MacBook only supports usb. I can stream via iTunes and my apple tv but that doesn't support 24 bits. So i bought Audirvana plus that detects the dac and streams 24 bits to the dac. So you recon that this will improve the sound quality?