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What's the best tube system you have ever heard?

From my very modest audio budget, I'm still perfectly pleased with my Scott 299 and Dynaco A-25 setup. I paid $150 for the Scott from an antique dealer and traded a pair of RCA 6L6GC's for the Dynaco's.

Speakers on the floor of a carpeted room with stone and concrete walls. Amperex EL84's and Telefunken Ribbed 12AX7's. Bass on -2, Treble on +1 for most music sourced from my Stromberg Carlson FM-443 tuner or my Espresso MP3 player.

I have yet to hear such fantastic clarity and balance from even the boutique and "true audiophile" components I've heard.
 
UnGrounded said:
From my very modest audio budget, I'm still perfectly pleased with my Scott 299 and Dynaco A-25 setup. I paid $150 for the Scott from an antique dealer and traded a pair of RCA 6L6GC's for the Dynaco's.

Speakers on the floor of a carpeted room with stone and concrete walls. Amperex EL84's and Telefunken Ribbed 12AX7's. Bass on -2, Treble on +1 for most music sourced from my Stromberg Carlson FM-443 tuner or my Espresso MP3 player.

I have yet to hear such fantastic clarity and balance from even the boutique and "true audiophile" components I've heard.
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This is exactly the synergy of well chosen and well sorted out gear/listening space.
 
www.records said:
Well, I hate to tell you this, but if you were a subscriber here at AK, there is a single 604C with crossover that was just listed in Barter Town. Not mine, I was just looking the FS ad.:sigh:
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Thanks for the heads-up, but I need to find one at an estate sale for $20. That's what I mean when I say "fall into my lap"
 
At this point in time I don't think I could pick the best I've heard, there've been many good ones..
 
I haven't heard too many except my own. Audible Illusions Modulus 2D which seems to sound amazing no matter what 6DJ8s are in it, though I've only rolled enough to find quiet tubes and not for sonics yet. Dynaco Stereo 70 with the Van Alstine bandwidth limiter mods and a few other minor adjustments as recommended by some of the posters here on AK. Original Mullard EL34s, RCA 7199s (never tried others, these were the only ones available to me), NOS Mullard GZ34 acquired in a small lot of tubes from an estate sale. Klipsch La Scalas. Source is 99% of the time a B&O TX2 linear tracker with a SoundSmith SMMC-2 cart.

I have an acquaintance in town who has a truly high-end system with Jadis preamps and some power amps that I've forgotten the name of that each use some insane number of KT90 tubes, like 12 or 14 per side. Haven't ever heard the system though.
 
Best I have heard are the one at my house a Jeff Korneff 45 type tube amp with BMS 2" drivers on 2" Volti Audio Tractrix horns. Next wood be the NTV6.2 amps with modded Lascalla's with 2" Field Coil drivers and Xovers.

Jay
 
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hey-Hey!!!,
Heard it at The Mill. My 4E27 amps driving RCA field-coil speakers. Right with those RCA's would be some of Bill Woods' stuff, bass reflex Altec 15's and Cogent compression drivers in his Ah! 300 cps horns. Linestage was a 12B4 with 816 Hg rectifiers and tube active loads.

The current home system is a close second. 4E27's swapped out for type 813 and bi-amped with E-Linear W6m running the bass. All horn-loaded. Capable of living with 1 Watt and getting fed lots more than that...:)

No way I'd spend the money to buy it retail, so DIY all the way.
cheers,
Douglas
 
The Tube set up# I have now is pretty nice - I have listened to a Mcintosh c22/275 - Linn lp12 with Mcintosh xls320 speakers which sounded really good - my setup has greater scale though - a mac mini (lossless rip) straight to a electronic crossover and then two a pair of MFA 75 monoblocks and a Linn lk140 for the bass - the speakers are Martin Logan Monolith III's - it sounds great on all types of music
 

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Three panel Magnaplanars, all ARC driving the Maggies, two very large ARC monoblocs, custom built coffin sub with Ampzilla power, Fidelity Research cart. Do not remember the specs on the TT. That was in the mid 70s, Stereo Emporium, Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY.
 
ARC VT-130 SE driving Proac Response 1SC's. ARC tube preamp...not sure which one...I couldn't believe the immediacy and power of this set up. I thought there was a subwoofer hidden somewhere...
 
My Eico HF-81 with either my recapped Crites upgrade Forte's or EPI 202's.

Also enjoying the heck out of the ramped up low end on my Robert1 recapped Zenith SEP 6BQ5 with some nice Telle 12xx7's with the Forte's. May actually be my fav :thmbsp:
 
I just got back from the RMAF show and I really enjoyed the deHavilland room. Kara's tube electronics, Ampex reel-to-reel coupled to Randy Bankert's Sonist Concerto 3 speakers is a match made in heaven. I could have spent the entire day in that room.
Mike
 
Well, today I heard it! A friend made a 6B4G amp driven by paralleled 6SN7s, no coupling caps, drivers and outputs coupled by 70h inductors. Very low parts count, beefy power supply with big oil caps, other p/s caps are 22uf Solen, James 3.5K:8 transformers. I listened to the amp for over an hour. I could have sat on that couch for another 10 hours.

I'm impressed. I have some decent gear but this little amp is so clear it's unreal. Sounds and instruments were jumping out of the speakers, it was music magic.
 
The only tube systems I've ever heard are the ones I own. So, you know my answer to the OP's question.
 
I'm hoping it's going to be my new Audible Illusion tube pre driving my restored stromberg monos. I've been waiting ever so patiently for cold weather to arrive to fire up all those tubes. With 85 watts on tap the speakers will be either the updated ohm walsh 4's or the recapped boston acoustic a400's.
 
mjalazard said:
I just got back from the RMAF show and I really enjoyed the deHavilland room. Kara's tube electronics, Ampex reel-to-reel coupled to Randy Bankert's Sonist Concerto 3 speakers is a match made in heaven. I could have spent the entire day in that room.
Mike
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Mike,
Please tell more about Kara's new toy!!! I have been waiting to hear about it from someone who was there, what were the tapes she used etc.

Jay
 
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