Tube Amp Recommendation

Plato, Bob, and Keith,

Thanks for the quick response and information. There is no such thing as bad information and I appreciate it all; that's the only way to learn. I will research your recommendations and see if I can't improve things. Also, I was just reading on the Apogee forum page, that some one was using a Crown Micro amp. I know these amps have a pretty noisy fan, but they are suppose to deliver over 500 watts at 8 ohms and drive down to 2 ohms pretty easy. I just wonder about the quality of the sound.

Calvin

$1500 is really cutting off the kind of tube amp you need...around 100 watts per channel. The Sonic Frontiers Power 2 would be a good choice but they're going for around $2000 used, maybe a little less. You might also want to investigate an outboard auto-transformer which is essentially an impedance multiplier to make that difficult load more manageble. You find them here:http://www.condor-connection.org/asog/tweaks/ps/zero/index.html

Good luck...I think tubes and 'stats are the way to go, but you must be careful.

For a tubie sounding amp that can drive your Acoustat44,the Belles 350 is a good canditate. It is 250 watts per and very well built. The price is somewhere around $3500.00. This will also match your quicksilver tube pre-amp.

Calvin,

I have never heard the Crown amp. Personally, I am not all that fond of amps with fans... just one more thing that can break... and if it does, who knows how much damage can be done from overheating (if you are not there when the fan breaks)?

You might want to consider Rogue amps. They are close to your price range used. But I still think it will be difficult to effectively drive those speakers with a tube amp in this price range.

Good Luck!

Keith

Rogue 120''s or a good deal on a Mesa Baron like I got.The Baron lists for $4K but can be had fopr $1500 used.150 watts full pentode and the abiltiy to tailor 12 5881's/El34's in thirds to triod/pentode make this the best piece of gear I have picked up.