Hi DennyC - I would highly recommend the PrimaLuna Dialogue 2 integrated. It is auto-biasing, and can take many different kinds of tubes, so you can tube roll to your heart's content if you want without having to worry about biasing. The amp is very good sounding (on the warmer side), and has two modes, an ultralinear one putting out 35W a channel, and a triode mode putting out 21W. You can flip back and forth between them at the touch of a button, which is a very nice feature indeed. It also has a soft-start feature to prolong tube life. I have had one for more than 9 months now and am very happy with it. It is a perfect way to get into tubes, and will be powerful enough to drive most speakers out there. I think they still run a little over 2600 new, but you could probably find a used one here cheaper.
Tube amp recommendation
My current amp is dying and therefore I am in the market for a new amp. I got my current amp back in my university daze (solid state, over 10 years old and cheap). Perhaps I should have upgraded years ago, but it served me well and I was happy enough with it (and spent the money on records instead).
I have always been impressed by the sound that tube amps generate and hence believe that my current amp is giving me the push to go finally into the tube world. I have read various items on this website (and a few others) and have a bit of confusion (and hence some questions).
Now pieces of information about me...
1) I like to listen to large assortment of music (old skool reggae, bad electronic music, the occasional rock record, various jazz items, sometimes even hiphop). Often I listen to stuff in what seems like an random order.
2) I am rather lazy on my days off (when I listen to music most of the time).
With these two points I mean I don't really want to change a set of tubes because my music selection is a sometimes bit schizophrenic. I don't want to manually adjust bias settings every Saturday morning (occasionally fair enough).
Therefore, can anyone recommend any tube amps that are in the entry - mid level for me?
I have always been impressed by the sound that tube amps generate and hence believe that my current amp is giving me the push to go finally into the tube world. I have read various items on this website (and a few others) and have a bit of confusion (and hence some questions).
Now pieces of information about me...
1) I like to listen to large assortment of music (old skool reggae, bad electronic music, the occasional rock record, various jazz items, sometimes even hiphop). Often I listen to stuff in what seems like an random order.
2) I am rather lazy on my days off (when I listen to music most of the time).
With these two points I mean I don't really want to change a set of tubes because my music selection is a sometimes bit schizophrenic. I don't want to manually adjust bias settings every Saturday morning (occasionally fair enough).
Therefore, can anyone recommend any tube amps that are in the entry - mid level for me?