Tube amp help

A

abdraffay

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Jul 21, 2015
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Hello,
I have a pair of teledyne AR38s and want to know if they are suitable for tube amps. I have tried to read a lot on matching but I am still confused. If they can be hooked up to a tube amp then what specification amp should I be looking at. My music interest is vocals jazz old music and my listening distance is 9 feet, although the entire room is 20x40 feet.
Cheers.


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Hi,

It looks like those speakers are probably 88 dB efficient at 8 ohms. Not bad for a tube amp. Recommended power is 15 to 100 watts per channel but with a room that size you’d need To be careful. I would try to listen more near field so as not to overdrive them.

Are they in good shape? Is the surrounding foam intact? I grew up with Teledyne Acoustic Research speakers and just recently gave away a pair of AR9LS to a friend.

You probably want a tube amp with 30-50 wpc and don’t crank the heck out of them. More power is fine, just don’t overdo the volume.

Let us know ...
 
Good recommendations Joe. It seems like your tastes and desires are similar to mine.

A couple questions I would ask are first your budget and do you more seriously listen or is it more a background filler? Do you prefer very loud or more moderate levels?

If the later then you might want to consider a SET amp, although the more basic SETs are probably too low power. At the 40-50 WPC range the Audio Mirror are fantastic. If you are not quite to that budget a good class A like the Quick Silver should do the the trick nicely.
 
A safe bet in the tube amp arena would be one of the Primaluna or Mystere (same company different styling) amps. They are all auto-biasing and many allow the rolling of different power tubes. All of them are reasonably priced and usually found used or as demos.
 
Randy Myers said:
Good recommendations Joe. It seems like your tastes and desires are similar to mine.

A couple questions I would ask are first your budget and do you more seriously listen or is it more a background filler? Do you prefer very loud or more moderate levels?

If the later then you might want to consider a SET amp, although the more basic SETs are probably too low power. At the 40-50 WPC range the Audio Mirror are fantastic. If you are not quite to that budget a good class A like the Quick Silver should do the the trick nicely.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. Budget is between 500-1000 dollars. Serious listening lastly Moderate levels.


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Jack said:
A safe bet in the tube amp arena would be one of the Primaluna or Mystere (same company different styling) amps. They are all auto-biasing and many allow the rolling of different power tubes. All of them are reasonably priced and usually found used or as demos.
Click to expand...

Thanks will look into these.


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One more thing, I met this local guy here who has some knowledge and he out right rejected the idea of putting a tube amp because in his opinion my speakers are pretty average and cannot perform well with tube amps. Any truth in that?


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Randy Myers said:
Good recommendations Joe. It seems like your tastes and desires are similar to mine.

A couple questions I would ask are first your budget and do you more seriously listen or is it more a background filler? Do you prefer very loud or more moderate levels?

If the later then you might want to consider a SET amp, although the more basic SETs are probably too low power. At the 40-50 WPC range the Audio Mirror are fantastic. If you are not quite to that budget a good class A like the Quick Silver should do the the trick nicely.
Click to expand...

Loved the audio mirror but way out of my league :) maybe I should look at building my own.


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The only real answer is for you to listen and decide for yourself. Like it was said before, your speakers are not difficult to drive making them well within the performance envelope. I would actually prefer a tube amp overall but you can’t drive them to concert levels.

I’ll post a video later of those speakers in action and the guy loves them.

Some speakers absolutely need big power and are difficult to drive, not yours.

No matter what you get, you might need to up the budget a little but you might find a great deal somewhere.
 
Some specs on your speakers to assist others in recommendations :

45-22k +/- 3db

[TD="width: 54"] 88 db [/TD]
[TD="width: 99"] 2000hz [/TD]
[TD="width: 73"] 15-100 w [/TD]
[TD="width: 80"] 8 ohms [/TD]
 
CPP said:
Some specs on your speakers to assist others in recommendations :

45-22k +/- 3db

[TD="width: 54"] 88 db [/TD]
[TD="width: 99"] 2000hz [/TD]
[TD="width: 73"] 15-100 w [/TD]
[TD="width: 80"] 8 ohms [/TD]
Click to expand...

When the specs mention +/- 3db what does that mean? As I understand in the ideal scenario the frequency response should be a straight line at 8 ohms but in reality it’s not the case. I saw a graph in the in the y-axis there were ohms but in thousands in the middle it was 8000 then plus and minus. So does the 3db fluctuation means 3000? And how can one know without instruments if and when it clips. I tried to search for a frequency response graph for the speaker but couldn’t find one.
Sorry for my lack of knowledge, I am trying to understand sound so that I can appreciate good equipment.
Cheers.


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abdraffay said:
Looking forward to this video, thanks.


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Click to expand...




[video=youtube;VVMAcV7XeuY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=VVMAcV7XeuY[/video]











[SUB][/SUB]
​
 
Last edited:
We all started somewhere, please don't be embarrassed for not knowing.

Those specs refer to the guaranteed typical in room response that the speaker will put out. Do not get too hung up on the specs. How they perform in our rooms will be different. If your room is lively or dead, treated or not. It's just a guide to how high and low your speaker will go.

The 8 ohms, in your case, if better for tube amps. It's an average resistance measurement. Most tube amps have multiple tap settings and the 8 ohm tap is where I'd start to hook them up. Generally, tube amps prefer to drive a higher impedance. It's easier for them.

As far as clipping, if you overdrive your amp or speakers you will hear distortion. This is absolutely horrible for the speakers. It will destroy them. It's not the power that kills speakers but distortion. 1000wpc played at low level is better than 10wpc cranked up. Sort of, if you understand.
 
Here is a pair of AR-3a with a Dynaco ST-70 35wpc amp. Tubes can be wonderful.


 
joeinid said:
Here is a pair of AR-3a with a Dynaco ST-70 35wpc amp. Tubes can be wonderful.


Click to expand...


Excellent!!! But AR3 are much high-end speakers compared to mine don’t you think


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General question. I have a friend who has been in the electronics field all his life. Basically repairing tube amps and as times changed everything digital. What I am trying to say is that he knows circuits etc. So is it possible to make a tube amp diy style. I see a lot of YouTube videos claiming that. If yes is it possible to source parts like good quality power supply, transformers etc. Also will it be cost effective or not?
Cheers.


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http://www.tubes4hifi.com/bob.htm

You could buy a kit like this and be well on your way.



abdraffay said:
General question. I have a friend who has been in the electronics field all his life. Basically repairing tube amps and as times changed everything digital. What I am trying to say is that he knows circuits etc. So is it possible to make a tube amp diy style. I see a lot of YouTube videos claiming that. If yes is it possible to source parts like good quality power supply, transformers etc. Also will it be cost effective or not?
Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
abdraffay said:
When the specs mention +/- 3db what does that mean? As I understand in the ideal scenario the frequency response should be a straight line at 8 ohms but in reality it’s not the case. I saw a graph in the in the y-axis there were ohms but in thousands in the middle it was 8000 then plus and minus. So does the 3db fluctuation means 3000? And how can one know without instruments if and when it clips. I tried to search for a frequency response graph for the speaker but couldn’t find one.
Sorry for my lack of knowledge, I am trying to understand sound so that I can appreciate good equipment.
Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif]Specifications :[/FONT][FONT=Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif] -:®:- System : 2 way, 2 driver
-:®:- Drivers : 10" woofer , 1.25" cone tweeter
-:®:- Efficiency : 88dB @ 1W / 1m
-:®:- Nominal impedance : 8 ohms
-:®:- Power rating : 15W - 100W
-:®:- Frequency response : 45Hz - 22kHz

-:®:- Dimensions [ H x W x D ]: 635 x 354 x 273mm
-:®:- Weight : unpacked 17kg each
-:®:- Cosmetic : walnut with brown acoustic cloth[/FONT]
 
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