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?

Hi Rob
I'm not sure if these converters support high bit rates, personally I'm quite happy with 16 bit CD standard.
But then I'm probably a deaf old bugger by now. :wheniwasaboy: :)
The one shown in that ebay listing only supports 16 bits up to 48KHz. Mine is probably the same.

So if you are into more than that I don't think I can help - but my own humble opinion is that there is far more going on here than bit rates etc and that the main thing that matters is the quality of the audio engineering - and the built-in USB converters in a lot of DACs simply aren't very good.

Happy to loan as offered if you are still interested.
No, it's not for sale, I want it back once you've had a try! I do use it occasionally.

btw - I think once you get to 5 posts you can start using the forum's Private Message system.

Hello Rob. Welcome to AOS.

So you've been using Magnat speakers? That's not a name that pops up very often in the UK. They made some interesting speakers.

There are quite a few of us using valve equipment. A lot of members here do.

Feel free to join in the chat. Everybody is friendly.

Can you bung a location in your profile please. Town or county will do. Thanks.


Enjoy the forum,
Geoff.

Hi geoff,

I am original Dutch Magnat 's are German, I still have the all ribbon 8 speakers, I replaced the capacitors on the crossovers, but I felt it was time for something new, and the q acoustics are very good value for money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob Tube

I am surprised that tube amps are not more popular in hifi.

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Rob I am so with you on this one. Not everyone's choice of course but very definitely mine. I have tried countless tranny amps but always end up back with valves.

Hi Jerry,

It is just to test with 24 bits 192 kHz, and it is very friendly from you to offer, but I don't think it is beneficial to test with. I am also old, but I did a test with my friend Chris we compared streaming with cd and the streaming sounded better, until we realized we were comparing a 24 bits file with a cd, the file sounded better when we compared a 16 bits file with a cd they were exactly the same. So my ears are not that bad yet.

No problem, Rob.
We must all find our own path.

I've compared CD with Spotify Premium and Tidal Hirez and settled on the one I prefer.
To be honest, I have been totally won over by the huge musical catalogue available from the streaming services, especially Spotify, and that gets priority for me over a tad more here or there in terms of sound quality even if I heard it that way.

As an aside, I'm a bit baffled by Spotify Premium - my DACs always say it is a 24 bit 96KHz datastream, - wth is going on there? :scratch:

Spotify are broadcasting in flax a lot of the time now they say they testing it a lot I've heard is spot on excuse the pun but only for premium users

Aha :eek:

No wonder I have been happy with Spotify Premiun. :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Aha :eek:

No wonder I have been happy with Spotify Premiun. :lol:

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Finally it makes sense! I did think you had lost it mate but wasn't going to say anything ;)

Told u a while ago Spotify were trailing lossless via chrome web player mostly. It was stopped there but might be back on. I am using Deezer's lossless at moment