Tube Preamp+Power Amp Advice

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories Speaker Amps
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Looking for advice to upgrade my amp setup. I’m currently using ELAC Uni-fi UB5 with an old Denon DRA-625RA. I feel that the Denon isn’t fully bringing out my Elacs, but it does sound good, a step above what i i had before (Klipsch 1.1) BUT i was looking for upgrades. I have no experience with tube amps and power amps. At the most($$$) I was looking at Schitt Saga + and Emotiva A 300, or even the Denon with the A300. Just looking for some opinions and guidance. Thanks!

Edit: I have a topping Pa3 that i tried with the Elacs and it was “meh” compared to the Denon, I also have JDS el DAC and JDS Atom Amp(AKG 712 pro) which could be added to my setup. I use xbox one and Ipad for music/movies/games

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So personally, I think something like a schiit saga + and a used parasound would be pretty dang sweet imo. Perhaps find a newclassic 275 v2 or 2125 v2 and you will be in business imo. There are also a ton of nice vintage power amps to choose from as well

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Thanks for the reply. Do you have any experience with Parasound or Emotiva? What would be more important, power amp or tube amp?

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I really like parasound stuff, I have a few of their amps (you can check my profile if you want to see what I currently own)

Emotiva stuff is also pretty nice too, the a300 has pretty good bang for the buck imo. Personally I think the parasound is a bit more refined sound wise than emotiva, but either emotiva or parasound would be satisfactory.

So I think the power amp would be more important for a quality upgrade, but the tube preamp would introduce the most difference into the system by running it through a tube

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Awesome, Since the Elac can handle a lot of watts I was thinking Emotiva…but if Parasound has a better refined sound i might be leaning towards that plus a tube, Thanks Again

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6

Yeah it should be a nice upgrade no matter which one you go with :+1:

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@MON and anyone else who might know: Can I use a Feliks Espressivo Mk I as a pre-amp for a Lake People G109?

I know that in general it can be done with tubes and SS but I’m not sure if the power output and impedance of these two specific amps match (I think it’s an issue but I have difficulty understanding the numbers). I’m afraid of burning something.

Here are specs that I think are relevant but I’m not sure :

Espressivo Specs:

Rated impedance 100 kΩ
Optimal headphone impedance 100-600Ω
Power output 400mW

G109a Specs:

  • Impedance: 10 K ohms
  • Toroidal power transformer, low-ESR Nichicon capacitors
  • Nominal input level: + 6 dBu
  • Slew rate: > 8V / usec
  • THD+N: < -100 dB @ 10V in 100 Ohms (1W); < -100 dB @ 18V in 600 Ohms (5W)
  • Max. output level: > 18.8 Veff in 600 ohms = 590 mW; > 13.8 Veff in 100 ohms = 1900 mW; > 10.7 Veff in 50 ohms = 2300 mW; > 7.8 Veff in 50 ohms = 1900 mW; > 3.7 Veff in 16 ohms = 410 mW
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Yes, you shouldn’t have any issues imo, just max the lake people amp volume

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Thank you very much. I would have thought I had to max all the volumes except for the one connected directly to the headphone. Is that because the Feliks shouldn’t be maxed for power reasons?

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If you max the feliks you might get more distortion than you would want depending on the topology of the feliks

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ok, I get it, thanks again