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Tube Sound on a Tight Budget

Tim64

Tim64

Super Member
This is my low budget system I thought I would share to show you can get pretty good sound for not a lot of cash.
Amplifier is the APPJ Miniwatt with JJ and Tungsol tubes puts out 3.5 wpc. The pre can be found under a couple names Nobsound is one of them, mine happens to be a Zhilaiaudio running NOS GE tubes. My DAC is a FIO Taishan D3 hooked up to a Sony DVP-NS715P DVD player that is also hooked up to the tv. Headphone amp is from E-Bay as a kit looks similar to the Little Bear P-5 also running NOS GE tubes and Audio Technica ATH-M40fs Headphones.Speakers are Polk R40's with extra poly fill for damping they needed it badly. The DVD player,speakers and Cans were bought used the other stuff was purchased new. All the cables were made by myself since I had access to the materials where I work. The system is silent with no signal and has a nice laid back sound with good detail, better than any solid state stuff I have had over the years and has sold me on tube audio. One caveat on the Mini watt the switching supply causes static on half the FM band so if a tuner is a must this is a deal breaker. Total investment is about 400.00 and I can live with this system until I can afford a better Tube amplifier KT88's anyone and of course pictures.
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Thanks for the replies, I have played with quite a bit of solid state equipment and just found it lacking something for me. And I started with the Mini Watt and added the other piece's over the past year. It matches well with the R40's and will play as loud as I ever will want it to. The preamp works great but needed a real power supply to work properly. I just hope this will inspire someone thinking tubes are out of there price range to look at this as a start.
 
Definitely a TUBE INSPIRATION for me,,
$400 wow, Very Nice ..
I'm afraid to step into the tube game without a budget of at least $1200-$2200..
But after seeing your rig ,, maybe I can set a lower budget to get my feet wet with...
 
Nice looking system. I've really enjoyed reading your threads as your tube system has grown. I shied away from the EL84 based mini because you had previously mentioned the tuner noise and I wanted 2 inputs. I already had 7189/EL84 based units so tube rolling would be easy. Picked up this EL84 & 12AX7 unit for streaming 2 months ago. Right now it is powering a pair of Coral BX-1001 speakers(bottom pair) using 6P14P-K and RCA 12AX7A tubes. The 1st pic is the day it arrived with stock chinese tubes. Haven't added an external DAC or phono pre yet but will eventually. Tubes don't have to be expensive and they are fun. Thanks for the reminder.
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That's a neat little amplifier and I bet it can drive those Corals fine. I like the fact it has two inputs and is ok with your tuner very cool.
 
Tim64 said:
That's a neat little amplifier and I bet it can drive those Corals fine. I like the fact it has two inputs and is ok with your tuner very cool.
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Thanks,
The tuner lives a sheltered life on the lower end of the dial, so I may be fortunate with the matching.

Delta77 - When buying new I suffer from "paralysis by analysis", but when I found this unit for under $150 shipped it was time to act. Glad I did.
 
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