RGA
Super Member
The difficulty is finding gear that does everything equally well - for me in particular because I listen to an extremely wide array of music. Certain tube amps sound better at Eva Cassidy while not as good with AC/DC - where as the killer AC/DC amp may lack body and soul for Eva Cassidy.
No small wonder that many tube amps provide high/low-no feedback or UL/Triode modes to somewhat allow you to compensate for the type of music you're playing.
The LM dealer here describes the 300B as a "Lady Amp" which I take to mean delicate and pretty but not particularly ballsy or robust sounding and he's really not all that wrong. For some it's the one and only but for others it can be their least favorite of the SET amps.
I should note that early on I upgraded my 219IA with German Silver caps and my amp is now called the 219IA DX which they sold beside the regular 219IA version. This model is only sold in Hong Kong. The stock preamp tubes 12AX7 are pretty awful as well. John Halppern told me to junk those immediately. The dealer here who sells all sorts of tubes has favorites which interestingly seem to fly in the face of tube fans on various boards. But his recommendation works for this amp - modestly priced Tung Sol Gold pins
I would like to bring some preamps in because in general it is the preamp stage that is the weak spot of integrated amplifiers - all integrated amps - and Line Magnetic was smart enough to know that and put direct/preamp in instead of preouts.
The money was obviously put to the big power output stage - the 310a/300B dual driver stage to the 845 with the massive transformers - but the 12ax7 preamp stage is lesser. With the right preamp - the thing could be pretty spectacular as a dual mono (closest thing you can get to monoblocks) power amp. I might try and get an Audio Note M2 or M3 or M6 home to try. I might even consider having the LM internally rewired with AN silver cables as well as replacing the Cardas RCA connectors with AN silver and replace the caps again with Black Gates or Silver in Oil caps. Well the latter if I win the lotto.
No small wonder that many tube amps provide high/low-no feedback or UL/Triode modes to somewhat allow you to compensate for the type of music you're playing.
The LM dealer here describes the 300B as a "Lady Amp" which I take to mean delicate and pretty but not particularly ballsy or robust sounding and he's really not all that wrong. For some it's the one and only but for others it can be their least favorite of the SET amps.
I should note that early on I upgraded my 219IA with German Silver caps and my amp is now called the 219IA DX which they sold beside the regular 219IA version. This model is only sold in Hong Kong. The stock preamp tubes 12AX7 are pretty awful as well. John Halppern told me to junk those immediately. The dealer here who sells all sorts of tubes has favorites which interestingly seem to fly in the face of tube fans on various boards. But his recommendation works for this amp - modestly priced Tung Sol Gold pins
I would like to bring some preamps in because in general it is the preamp stage that is the weak spot of integrated amplifiers - all integrated amps - and Line Magnetic was smart enough to know that and put direct/preamp in instead of preouts.
The money was obviously put to the big power output stage - the 310a/300B dual driver stage to the 845 with the massive transformers - but the 12ax7 preamp stage is lesser. With the right preamp - the thing could be pretty spectacular as a dual mono (closest thing you can get to monoblocks) power amp. I might try and get an Audio Note M2 or M3 or M6 home to try. I might even consider having the LM internally rewired with AN silver cables as well as replacing the Cardas RCA connectors with AN silver and replace the caps again with Black Gates or Silver in Oil caps. Well the latter if I win the lotto.