Hello everyone, I recently decided to buy a set of auteurs and (to me) the general consensus is that auteurs love tubes. I would like to buy a tube amp sometime before my auteurs arrive so I can A/B and get the most out of these cans (with my budget lol). I’d be running the amp off of a Bifrost 2, and I’d like to keep my budget under 1k. Some considerations that I’ve found include:
Feliks Audio Echo
Monoprice LP with better tubes (like a set of siemens A-frame, or bugle boy’s)
Lyr 3 (kinda Meh about this one, but it’s there)
What’s your favorite tube amp to drive ZMF auteurs off of (regardless of price)? What would be a good match for these headphones at or below a 1k price point (I am US based if that helps)? Any recommendations would be much appreciated.
Below 1K, Bottlehead Crack with Speedball or Zampotech SW51+. The Crack is a DIY so may not work for you (unless you pay someone to assemble for you). The SW51+ has a months long waiting period. Others will chime in but the above are what I would buy.
Haggerman Tuba is a good match and readily available, but you’ll want to replace the stock tubes ~$50-$80.
I like both the SW51+ and the Tuba with ZMF’s, I find the BHC+SB a bit on the wet side for everyday listening, but people’s tastes vary.
Thank you all for the suggestions thus far. I’m not too confident in soldering and such so I’m going to have to say no to a BHC (I also have no equipment to build a kit like that anyways). Really appreciate the help though and I’ll take a look at these options.
Some great suggestions here so far. Just want to point out that if you’ve got the free time and any interest at all, learning to solder is much easier than most people think it is. The BHC and SB are both pretty simple builds you can likely assemble successfully after building a “learn to solder” kit or two. And, even if you add the cost of a good soldering station and the couple of tools you’d need, the total cost comes in under your budget, and you’ll have learned a cool skill at the same time.