New Monitor Audio Silver 6 - Tubes or SS

[ScooterMcTav]

Morning all,

As per the nice folks at UPS, my pair of new MA Silver 6 are scheduled to be delivered today. Once home, they will be quickly placed in my listening room, and hooked up to one of two integrateds:

- Jolida JD-302BRC, 60W, KT88 in the output stages
- Musical Fidelity a3.2

Like most audio geeks, I want to be super impressed with the first thing I hear from the speakers, so asking for the opinion of others as to which I should use first.

For the Jolida, the pros are its warm and rich midrange, and that great tube "presence". Cons are a somewhat flabby and thin bass.

For the MF, the pros are its clean power reserves, and solid bottom end. Cons are a little less warm sound signature, and a more recessed midrange.

And of course, at some point I will switch up the integrateds to give each a fair hearing, and may eventually put my Proton preamp back into the mix.

So, which amp should be the first up?

 

[captouch]

To me, it depends what impresses you more. Powerful, tight bass or seductive smooth mids and highs.

I’d personally try the Jolida first.

 

[Mister Pig]

To be honest, I would wire them out of phase and place them in a corner with a blanket over them. Play them for about 100 hours, then take place them in the main system and begin listening. Get the speakers through their initial break in period before wanting to be impressed with the sound. While they may indeed sound nice straight out of the box, all they are going to do is change from what you initially hear.

If going to listen to them ASAP, then use your most forgiving amp to make them tolerable. Which sounds like the Jolida.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[ScooterMcTav]

I am more a tube pre - SS amp guy.

This comment I find interesting. I've been happy going SS pre and Tube amp (pretty much a necessity with an MC phono stage). My understanding is the tube "magic" comes from the output tube interaction with the speakers' resistive load.

 

[ScooterMcTav]

To be honest, I would wire them out of phase and place them in a corner with a blanket over them. Play them for about 100 hours, then take place them in the main system and begin listening. Get the speakers through their initial break in period before wanting to be impressed with the sound. While they may indeed sound nice straight out of the box, all they are going to do is change from what you initially hear.

If going to listen to them ASAP, then use your most forgiving amp to make them tolerable. Which sounds like the Jolida.

Regards
Mister Pig

This comment made me chuckle. Who in today's society can get something in the mail and not jump all hell-bent into using it? Certainly not me! I've already waited five days for the speakers to arrive!

 

[ScooterMcTav]

To me, it depends what impresses you more. Powerful, tight bass or seductive smooth mids and highs.

I’d personally try the Jolida first.

And this is the exact debate I'm having with myself. Unfortunately, I've lately added a set of Smaller Advents to the lineup, and although they sound surprisingly good for their age and original MSRP, their load and inefficiency brings the Jolida to its knees at any sort of volume.

Mind you, the MAs present nowhere near the load of the Advents, so possibly I will not lose coherence with the MAs, even with the Jolida.

 

[ferninando]

I have Silver 8s and drive them with a KW 7100 60watt SS intg
with extreemly good results. Couldnt be happier. Love MA speakers.
I also had some gold 20s, also wonderful spkrs.

 

[ScooterMcTav]

Tube amps are always MEH to me. I haven't heard one I could live with. I think the magic is in the pre-amps stage.

Interesting perspective. That being said, I personally found the tubes being used in the output stage to make a huge difference. When I switched out Tung Sol (RI) 6550 for EH KT88 in the output stages, the change was immediate and apparent. Midrange glare dropped, and the bottom end filled up nicely.

 

[darkblue94]

I just want to listen. I don't care about, 'This Tung Sol, has better sizzle, etc.' - I just want plug and play. I am more into the music. If I have to spend so much time futzing, my time listening would be less. Jes me though.

For a guy who claims to want more time for listening to music than putzing with gear you seem to spend an awful lot of that available time on your computer opining about gear than actually listening to music. What gives?

 

[ScooterMcTav]

I just want to listen. I don't care about, 'This Tung Sol, has better sizzle, etc.' - I just want plug and play. I am more into the music. If I have to spend so much time futzing, my time listening would be less. Jes me though.

Well, and that's where I'm going. With the EH KT88, I found the sound I like, so less futzing!

In fact, I prefer being able to change the sound of my amp completely for ~$120 versus spending $1,000 on an amp, then changing speakers or the room, and having a mismatched sound signature.

And from my perspective, futzing makes me listen to more music, rather than less. Kind of like how a new driver gets you out golfing more.

 

[bobins08]

Morning all,

As per the nice folks at UPS, my pair of new MA Silver 6 are scheduled to be delivered today. Once home, they will be quickly placed in my listening room, and hooked up to one of two integrateds:

- Jolida JD-302BRC, 60W, KT88 in the output stages
- Musical Fidelity a3.2

Like most audio geeks, I want to be super impressed with the first thing I hear from the speakers, so asking for the opinion of others as to which I should use first.

For the Jolida, the pros are its warm and rich midrange, and that great tube "presence". Cons are a somewhat flabby and thin bass.

For the MF, the pros are its clean power reserves, and solid bottom end. Cons are a little less warm sound signature, and a more recessed midrange.

And of course, at some point I will switch up the integrateds to give each a fair hearing, and may eventually put my Proton preamp back into the mix.

So, which amp should be the first up?

First congrats on the Silver 6's. My brother is looking at Silver 8's and I hope he finally pulls the trigger as they are excellent speakers.

I have a Musical Concepts PAS Pro customized tube preamp and a restored (tricked out) Hafler DH 220 power amp and a Jolida 502 integrated amp that I sometimes substitute (in bypass mode) as a power amp. I love the tube pre and the SS power amp combo with my new Acoustic Zen speakers. I am getting ready to try the Jolida Power amp with these speakers, maybe I'll try them tonight in fact!

I cannot recall which power amp I like better with my old speakers. I liked them both, maybe the Hafler had better bass and was better overall --- but the Jolida has the nice tooby sound and was enjoyable. I have KT 120's in my Jolida amp and they provided much better bass than the stock 6550's ever did. The Jolida pre-amp portion of the integrated 502 cannot keep up with my separate Pas Pro pre amp but the power amp section is nice. If your model 302 allows you to separate the two stages I would try the Proton preamp with the Jolida power amp stage.

You're lucky to have both so the best advice is to try them and compare them. Whichever you play first is irrelevant but I might start with the tubes for whatever reason. As @Mister Pig said, your speakers will be breaking in anyway so keep that in mind.

enjoy, Bob

 

[charles 1973]

I would use the Jolida first, More out of curiosity than anything else. Those MA Silver 6 are one of many speakers that should work just fine with either SS or Tube amps. But speaker and amp synergy varies more with tube amps due to low damping factors and impedance matching. Where as the Musical Fidelity SS amps will pretty much sound sweet with any speaker you connect them too.

That said, Since those MA Silver 6 speakers have a smooth, Warm and Balanced sound out of the box once broken in (which is why they are one of my favorite speakers in that price range), The Musical Fidelity amp might provide a more transparent and dynamic sound with better controlled bass.

But I have never heard a good Tube amp. I have always thought Tubes were sloppier and had more distortion until I bought my Dynalab Hybrid FM Tuner using a pair of Philips JAN 6922 triode tubes in the audio stage. If this is any indication of how a tube amp can sound, I can attest that this tuner has the fastest, cleanest sound I have heard in a long time. So It probably comes more down to quality of the amp than it's tube or SS design. In that case I know Musical Fidelity makes some very good amps that just happen to be SS.

 

[ev13wt]

This comment made me chuckle. Who in today's society can get something in the mail and not jump all hell-bent into using it? Certainly not me! I've already waited five days for the speakers to arrive!

You don't have to, just play music. Any possible break in of the bass driver surround is done in 5 minutes. Its not some crazy horn subwoofer driver


I say use tubes first. Get to know the speakers for a bit. After a week go SS Another week and back to tubes.

 

[ScooterMcTav]

If your model 302 allows you to separate the two stages I would try the Proton preamp with the Jolida power amp stage.

Thanks Bob, in fact this is the way I'm using it now as the 302 has bypass mode.

That being said, although I'm not a bass fiend, the one area where I always feel most speakers are lacking (when run flat) is the bottom end. That Propton pre has a handy function (bass eq, same as NAD) where it boosts the signal by 6dB at 40Hz. As I listen to music more quietly as I age, getting that bass fill is important. Using the tubes as a power amp means I still get that great mid presence that tubes have, but it does lose a bit of this vs using the tube pre on the Jolida.

Interesting, as this is not an option on the MF, as it doesn not have a bypass or power in function. Best I could do is send a low level pre signal to one of the MF's inputs.

However, for the purposes of initial listening, I would like to take the Proton out of the signal chain, and only add it back later if needed.

But I have never heard a good Tube amp. I have always thought Tubes were sloppier and had more distortion until I bought my Dynalab Hybrid FM Tuner using a pair of Philips JAN 6922 triode tubes in the audio stage. If this is any indication of how a tube amp can sound, I can attest that this tuner has the fastest, cleanest sound I have heard in a long time. So It probably comes more down to quality of the amp than it's tube or SS design. In that case I know Musical Fidelity makes some very good amps that just happen to be SS.

I was with you, and wondered what the fuss was all about until I acquired my Jolida. Jaw-dropping is not an understatement, I simply could not believe what it did to the midrange, vocals, piano, and all that other goodness contained in the music. Lifelike, vibrant, and immediate are the words I would have used to describe the sound. The only area where it suffers (as mentioned) is on the bottom end. The KT-88 certainly rich the sound up compared to the 6550, but on something more complex, it just can't deliver the punch of SS. This is probably why I own both.

 

[prisoners]

I have the Silver S2 and have used a variety of amplifiers with them. My favorite combo was all tube (Melos pre, ST-70 power) but for convenience purposes I'm using a Sony TA-1Aes integrated. It really doesn't give up much, maybe a little in the midrange thickness but it's very, very close. Close enough where I don't miss the final degree of improvement vs the simplicity and reliability of a new solid state integrated. That said not all solid state amps that I've tried with these have been a great match, but this Sony is very good with them.

 

[ScooterMcTav]

Well, initial listen last night was the Proton-Jolida combo.

Not sure what these need to break in - bass was amazing for the size of the towers and drivers, and highs were exactly as described in the SoundStage Access review. Sharp and accurate without being fatiguing.

Vocals did sound a little narrow, so possibly the 1.5 way driver does need some loosening.

Regardless, a very nice listening session. “Brian Wilson” by the Barenaked Ladies on CD was superb, as was my Deutsche Gramophone pressing of Beethoven’s 9th.

Funny note, as I unpacked the speakers, I felt some regret not ordering the Silver 8. I thought “man, these things are smaller than I thought - hope they get the SPLs and low end reach I’m looking for.”

Then I listened to them. Zero regrets, and I’m left wondering what sort of dark sorcery MA used to coax such huge sound out of small boxes.

 

[ScooterMcTav]

Why would I want to deprive my fellow audio enthusiasts the ability to post snarky, useless comments?

I have yet to understand why people feel so offended by a thread that they need to click on it, read the posts, then insult others. Guess we all need some new hobbies.

 

[musichal]

With the excellent reputation the 8s have established, I've also wondered about the 6s - nice to read about someone having a pair here, and I hope you follow up as they break in. Congrats on the new speaks!

 

[charles 1973]

Before evaluating your new speakers you should be aware that most will improve noticeably once they have been broken in. Some, like my Energy RC-LCR require 200 hrs to sound their best, and improved Dramatically vs the 10 hr mark. I'd say at least 50 - 100 hrs at normal volume for yours.

 

[bobins08]

Great news on the 6’s! I’ve only heard the 8’s and I imagine the 6’s to be very similar.

Well, thanks to your thread I finally hooked up my Jolida 502 to my Acoustic Zen Adagios.

It will take me awhile to complete my evaluation but if I had only the 502 I would be ok with it. Tube sound is definitely different than SS and while I did not walk away thinking it was “better” it was definitely engaging and fun. Bass was slightly less full. Midrange details are excellent. Speed was biggest difference and the tubes were noticeably slower which surprised me.

Enjoy your journey.