Tubes for HT?

DonP1

DonP1

Active Member
I'm worried that tubes won't have the punch/tightness/quick response of a SS amp for stuff like Star Wars. This is for a bedroom system powering 4 speakers with 15" woofers. I don't need a lot of power. 12wpc has been doing good. 25wpc would be perfect I think. I'm talking real watts, not the BS they rate systems with these days.


I'm having issues with my old 70's SS amps.

My tube amps seem simpler and easier to work on / keep running.

Would using a Dynaco ST-70 for a bedroom HT system be not as good as a SS?

I was using a Realistic STA-47 (12wpc?) but the left side now needs work. It was doing a great job until it gave out.

I also have an Dynaco SCA-35 that works great but I want to put in Dave's boards - I have all the part just need to get started.

I'm going to swap in an ST-70 for now, but I wonder what others think of tubes for HT. For audio listening I think of tubes being better.
 
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The ST-70 may work well for a bedroom HT.
I have a VTA ST-70 that was in my main system for years. Unless your speakers are pretty efficient, the SCA-35 probably won't do. I have a ST-35 and with less efficient speakers it struggles. I don't know that SS is any faster than tubes though.
 
I've run my big Bogen amps for HT duty. Just 2 channel mode, but it works perfectly fine. I have it in the room already, was no bother to add one more cable to the mix. I'd say its more about whether the speakers will play well with tubes than whether the tubes will play well in HT duty. 4x 15" woofers is a fair bit, and if they're a "loose" speaker that demands a lot of damping factor to not sound sloppy it may not work out terribly well.



Another possible concern is if you fall asleep with it on a lot, you're wasting a lot more power. If the amp is in good operating shape I wouldn't be so concerned about it exploding or doing anything nasty but tubes do have a finite lifespan, and personally it bothers me to waste hours of that because I nodded off.
 
I happen to use (4) mono configured Mc. MC 275 LE tubers for my living room`s HT/Stereo front L/R tri-amplified Mc. speaker system, 80 Hz. on up..
With (2) SS Mc. MC 1201 big boy mono blocks handling 80 Hz. on down, taking very good care of the basement frequencies..

I even pressed into service, my restored by me, a Mc. 60 for the matching center channel speaker, for any center channel info. source dependent, of course (multi channel available (Pure Audio BR, SCAD, etc.) for the total tube all important front channels amplification.

Warms up my NE. FL. living room in short order, just ask my 3.5 ton HVAC heat pump, even when it`s in the low forties to mid 30ties outside.. HA !
No drifting off to sleep with all those "facto bake sonic space heaters" tubers running !

Surprisingly, the( 4) 10+ yr. old purchased new 275 LEs have all the original factory tubes, with zero issues, even with a quite a few thousands of hours on them.
 
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