Seeking advice on tube amps

First... lots of great advice here that is backed up with meaningful reasoning and experiences .

But , my experience has shown me that the amp can affect how a particular speaker will sound especially if it is a neutral and revealing speaker .

Case in point , the particular speaker that I am now using sounded just wonderful with a tubed intergrated amp . And just terrible with a SS amp driven by a tubed pre . A different speaker was ok through the tubed pre/SS amp and really dark and muddy through the tubed int. ! A third brand of speaker barely showed any difference at all between the two different amp setups . These auditions were done in the same location with the same cables , source and music .

That day showed me the importance of system synergy .
Shop for your speakers first if you want but please pay attention to what is driving them !

Good luck .

03-12-09: Saki70
...the amp can affect how a particular speaker will sound especially if it is a neutral and revealing speaker .

Absolutely! Which is why it's important to choose the speakers first. If you own neutral speakers, then you can buy an amp to tailor the sound however you like...neutral or colored.

That day showed me the importance of system synergy .
Saki70 (Threads | Answers)

I'll bet synergy had a great deal to do with impedance match and whether the speakers were designed using the Voltage Paradigm or the Power Paradigm (see this white paper written by Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere).

I don't know that I necessarily buy all of this 'you must pick the speaker first' talk. I know many who choose the speaker around the amplifier....SET fans for instance. They choose to enjoy the SET sound, then go out and find speakers that cater to the flea-powered amps.

In a system, one does rely upon the other, amp and speakers, however, which one is the priority is up to the system coordinator.

Cheers,
John

John, those who assemble a SET system enter a very specific audio realm
where amplification and speakers are designed to work closely together. One
can safely assume speakers designed for SET amplification will work with
nearly any SET amplifier. It's easier to match gear, and comes with less risk. Do
you agree?

IMO, this is a different paradigm from someone searching for speakers to use
with push pull or OTL tube amplification where speakers designs are much
more varied.

I agree that one can select an amp first and buy speakers second IF the buyer
knows what to look for in a speaker that is tube friendly. Still, if one is starting
from scratch, why design a system around an amplifier rather than around the
sound of a speaker one likes (that is also tube friendly, if a tube amp will be
used)? This seems counterproductive to me.

To the OP, what source and preamp?,very important,if you are interested in say a Mac 275, what preamp and source will bedriving it ?, I have like 5 systems in my house, one of which is around a small pair of B&W cm2, a whopping $900/pair of book shelf speakers, I can dramatically change the sound with the electronics I have, I mean DRAMATICALLY,which shows me the speaker is at the mercy of what you feed it.

If someone is basically starting from scratch,they need to look ath the whole system as just that....a system, not just pick speakers and go from there.