Current Production Romantic Sounding Tube Gear

Looking for survey of unapologetically romantic sounding tube gear in CURRENT production...no oldies but goodies please..

 

Yaqin, music angel, audio research, music fidelity... Many more

 

I wonder if Decware would fall under this category?

 

I would like to go all tube but due to money and power requirements I went tube pre solid power. I'm very pleased with tube pre. My opinion is it gets you 75% there.

 

I consider audio research pretty clinical sounding for tube gear. The Decware gear I heard was actually pretty detailed. I would say CJ, Jadis, and Quicksilver (tube dependent).

Unapologetically romantic is a great description. Unfortunately I think tube gear in general has been moving away from that sound. Lots of tube gear around now could be describe as warm but when I hear unapologetically romantic, adjectives like lush, sweet an syruppy come to mind.

 

Wow, russk, I cannot agree with you more. I had an identical list of suggested brands and would add to that Synthesis and Audionote. I also think that Audio Research is very clinical and stripped of harmonic richness. I haven't heard that much of Decware, but the two pieces I heard were not impressive. Based on a new production McIntosh 275 that I heard and got a peek inside, STAY AWAY from that brand--terrible sound and really shoddy construction.

 

Some of this is tube rolling. The recent tubes available in my opinion are more clinical sounding. I also think less good tube techs has some to do with it. Mass produced incredible cost point new amps are great, but less time in really setting them up is spent. I think for the most part they are well engineered and have good sourced parts, but nobody like a tech is assembling and setting them up like in the golden era.

 

I've only heard Audionote gear once at a show. Fantastic sounding gear. Never heard Synthesis.

I've been racking my brain for more romantic sounding modern tube gear and can't come up with anything I've heard recently (in the last two years or so). Work is that slow today, damn.

 

I wonder where the S.E.T. Line Magnetic gear and their EL34 amp would fall on a range from Warm to Unapologetically Romantic?

Which begs the question, if you're looking for romantic and lush sounding tube gear should you stick with SET and EL34 gear (for new production). The newer KT90 and 120 tubes sound bright, edgy and detailed to me when compared to new production EL34s. The KT150 looks and sounds like something out of Star Trek in my opinion.

 

Is it not largely about what tubes are in use? Mine can sound rather sterile or harmonically rich depending on what you plug into it. I tend to want a nice clean circuit and good transformers as a platform for creating the sound I like.

 

I would not call ARC or MF romantic in any way based on current models. Have not heard Yaqin.

 

Probably..maybe some models. I have not heard any of their amps..unfortunately.

 

I would agree..on top of that I like a bit of "golden glow".

 

In general you might be right about KT120 vs EL34s..but I have heard EL34 amps sound really thin too.

 

I agree with you your take on the current state of things. I do think, however, there are designers who, again , without apology, seem to want to produce
a vintage sound.

 

Eastern Electric is working for me, although they are no longer making my amp, which others have noted as sounding very single-ended. KT120s sound very much like EL34s did in my old amp. RCA black plate drivers and CIFTE phase inverters are giving me a sound I very much associate with the EL34 amps.

Their M520 allows you to adjust the amount of negative feedback.

 

It depends on how you define romantic but I would say that my Jadis JA 200 monoblocks sound pretty romantic to me comparing to a lot of solid state amps out there. That also includes my MA6600.

 

Well i did love their tube DAC..

I will throw one in here..Unison Research..

 

Those must sound nice!

 

Thanks, they do indeed! They create an immensely holographic soundstage.

 

I bet! My ARC VS55 may be the last of the lush sounding components they made..now I am searching for a lush tube pre...

 

I don't think I was on par with the gist of the thread. I took "romantic" as the way tubes sound in general to Solid State. I think you folks are being much more specific as to "romantic" in contrast to other contemporary Tube amps. So tube versus tube what ones are romantic? To me Audio Research (only heard one model, but on repetitive listens) sounds more romantic than say a big solid state Arcam amp.

 

You could retitle this thread 'why do modern amplifiers sound so sterile?'. In truth it is speakers and the room that have the largest effect, but bright amps are all too common (or are they just 'honest'?).
If you only need 15 watts the revision of the Quad 11 monoblocs is pretty 'sweet.'. However, I find my original Quad 11s, while very old, have a wonderful tonality unmatched by any modern amp I know; probably a colouration, but who cares.Iit's the result that matters to me.

 

Yes, you got it..tube vs tube.

Oh for sure, some ARC products will NOT be mistaken for a Arcam etc. But they have moved towards a super zippy, clean sound as of late.

 

Ha! I grew up with Quad monos. GORGEOUS sounding. My dad ran them for 2o years driving Quad ESL's.