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May 6, 2012 - 8:07am
#1
Poor Sound Stage From Tube Amp (Advice Needed)
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In my humble system I have had two tubed integrated amps, an old Jolida 202 and a newer PrimaLuna Dialogue 2. My speakers of choice has beem a set of MMG's...they sounded magic with the Jolida and mid fi at best with the PrimaLuna despite the newer amp being much more expensive...The reason, the 38Watt PrimaLuna simply did not have the oomph to drive that speaker that the 50 watt Jolida did. I bought a more efficient mass market speaker, Energy's, and the Prima Luna sounds amazing! I guess I am saying the fault was not in the amp but in the speaker. With tubes you really do need to match the amp to the speaker.
Even many relatively expensive systems do not have particularly good imaging or a clear soundstage. Some speakers are better than others at this. Room acoustics are also an issue.
The speakers you are using are almost certainly not going to give you that kind of performance, evem if the amplifier is good enough, which is an open question.
You need to invest in some decent speakers; that is a good place to start. For example...the PSB Alpha T1 speakers. See at the Audio Advisor website.
You also did not say what your signal source is; are you using a CD player, turntable, etc. and what type model brand etc???
Thanks! I will try with my spare Wharfedale EVO 10.....
Thanks mate......Actually I heard something to do with the capacitors if the centre stage is not attain......but of course I'm not sure of the hearsay....that's why I'm asking around....
Have you checked your output tubes? Rebiased the amp? Changed your input tubes?
We need more information about what you've done so far. Your driver section probably has an input cap that blocks DC from the source and a 50 or 100k resistor or a 100k volume/balance pot that loads the source. You can probably remove the cap and bridge it. You can replace all that for about 10 bucks without getting fancy on parts. Make sure your input coupling components are in spec, because they are cheap, then move on to replacing tubes.
And then even if you don't believe in God, pray. Or just buy a decent little Rotel amp used for about 100 bucks. Cheaper than believing in God, although probably not as big a deal if you're wrong.
Good luck.