Current
-FAV ZMF Aeolus
-HD 58X
-Elegia
-Modhouse Argon
Future
-Higher end Focal
-More ZMF
-…others
I will mostly be wanting a warm sound for my open backed with wider sound stage
Gotcha, well I’m just going to say off the bat that the argons and focal aren’t going to be ideal off a tube amp, so getting a tube amp with a pre out or pass through might be worthwhile imo so you can add some tube sound to other amps.
I do like the Espressivo Mark II from feliks as that has tubes that are easy to roll, warmer more thick relaxed sound, and a pre out to give some tube sound to other amps. It would pair well with the aeolus and other zmf, and kinda the 58x, but for other headphones not so much
The cayin ha-1a mk2 is also pretty sweet, a tad less colored than the feliks but more versatile due to being transformer coupled with adjustable output impedance, also pre out too. This one would work with mostly all your current headphones (although not ideal on the elegia or argons)
The stuff from mapletree audio is pretty great like their ear + II HD or stuff like the OD300 SET or mellow boy but no pre outs and also pushing your budget here imo
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How do you feel about Tub Preamps for Vinyl, MON?
Would having a tube preamp give me a better experience for records, or can I use a Solid state Preamp and a headphone tube amp if I want tubes?
So regarding phono preamps, I would say you would want to focus on something that has synergy with the cartridge you have on there. Tube preamps for vinyl can be pretty sweet and add a nice sense of organicness to vinyl, and also round out the sound. But in some cases it might make more sense to go with a solid state depending on the cart. I personally can’t help you there too much since my experience with vinyl is limited
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Ughhhh…another rabbit hole (though I secretly am having fun)
I will have to look into that. I have no experience with matching cartridges to preamps.
…
I could have a tube preamp going to a tube headphone amp (getting excited) all the interesting sound combinations
You can, but make sure that preamp is the same quality as the amp, otherwise you might just be degrading the signal. A tube amp will add color, but a good tube amp will almost sound like solid state but different, it shouldn’t be inherently colored or sloppy or noisy or what have you
Would you mind naming a few, veritas?
So whether I go with a tube or solid state preamp…I should go high end on the preamp?
This way any additional changes I make (down the line), the preamp won’t be bottle-necking the system
I mean what I would do to maximize the budget is get a tube amp and also use it as a preamp for your solid state amps, that way it’s multi use. That way it’s solid in both regards
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I liked this one. Emails helped quite a bit as well. Note that they mention particular amps the tube does well on.
Darn you, MON.
They are all so pretty. I’m tempted just by how they look.
Thank you for the recommendations
They sounds as good as they look lol. There are other options as well, but those do stand out because of the feature set for having pre outs with a warmer tone in this budget. If you look used you might be able to find some good deals on more niche amps but it would depend on what’s currently out there
Some other amps you might like would be the line magnetic LM-MINI-84IA which has a line out, great for tube rolling, warmer sounding, and also can double as a lower power speaker amp which might be neat
If you could score a bottlehead mainline 1.1 that would also be real cool, nice amp with a warmer more energetic sound with pre outs iirc
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I have a lyr with socket savers for maybe 6 years now and have changed tubes maybe 100 times with nary a problem. I can’t speak for the Freya+ but the issue described were microphonic related. My assumption is that proper tubes will fix it.
My issue has nothing to do with sound, but build. Every review I see shows the Freya board flexing whenever a tube is removed or inserted.
If anyone here has built computers before, it is like a cheap motherboard.
It flexes and warps when you insert ram and things into PCI Slots.
Hmm interesting I’ll have to research more as I wonder if they are using socket savers and still getting board flex. No bueno if so!