CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

I just bought the last piece I need to make my 2-channel system into truly a pure 2-channel, in other words I won't have my Denon receiver in the signal chain any longer. Very Happy

I will be swapping interconnects around though for movies but tht's ok. So, I was wondering what you guys think this piece cost? Here's a brief description, BTW, it's hand built here in the US, not a Cheap Chinese knock-off Thumbs Up

scoobydoo · Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 358 Location: Victoria BC

sweet little tube unit.
I haven't really listened to a tube system but i'm interested in checking one out one of these days.
My two channel system concise of a creek 5350amp, NAD M55 cd player and B&W speakers.

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

You got robbed, Dragan. That thing's gonna sound all fuzzy. Laughing

TechToys · Guest

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

ill make it easy on you guys, i staretd a Poll. Reason is 2-fold.
1) it seems a lot of people are just hostile towards high end 2 -channel stereo, and have a very skewed notion of how much it costs.
2) Sometimes it can be outrageous, the new Ayre XKR pre-amp comes in at a hefty $18000. YEs, that's pre-amp ONLY.
Does anyone think you can find nice components, as in audiophile grade, for a reaonable cost?

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

$200.00.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:27 pm Post subject:

I'll say $349.00. Any lower and his piece will lose credibility with the audiofools out there.. Smile

Bucketfoot · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 698 Location: Centennial, CO

$275 if new, $150 if used

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

papalek · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1537 Location: Longs SC

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

**kal** · Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 3:45 am Post subject:

So it's not that uncommon to spend $3-5K on a 2-channel tube integrated amp, especially a good one.

But then most CRT's are cheap bastards, so I'm guessing $200. Wink

Kal

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

I was wondering
1) what you guys thought it cost, as in how much would it sell for
2) not what you would pay for it.
The answer to the second question Kal answered pretty eloquently. I don' think Adcom is lowly, it's pretty typical mid-level home theatre type stuff. Hell, anything is better than a receiver, even a Denon. Curt was right on the money, it's about $350. which I think is really cheap for a point to point wired vacuum tubed pre-amp hand built in the US. To give you an idea, a typical kit like from Bottlehead costs twice that much, and that's juts a kit.
Professional tubed pre-amps from company's like Rogue audio and others typically sell for $1500. on up to thousands of dollars. BUT, the point I was trying to make is that you can build a very reasonable 2-channel rig with premium components for less than the typical $5K figure most people think.
I haven't heard listened to this yet, I hope it's worth it.

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

So true that most tube gear is expensive. Early on in my audio life I ran all tube gear and it wasn't cheap even back in the 80's. Don't know if anyone has ever heard of TubeGod, they later changed thier name to NewYork AudioLabs. Not cheap but it sure sounded sweet running some Quad electrostats.
What are the tubes in your unit? The utbes I had in my pre were 6DG8s, 8 of them.

Bucketfoot · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 698 Location: Centennial, CO

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

I knew a few people back in the 80s who had very high end audio products on the market and typically the selling price was 4 times the build cost.

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

Well I don't know how much of a jaw dropping improvement I would expect because you are going to be running this through a solid state amp. So the final sound is going to depend on the worse piece of gear in the chain, that's not to say that SS amps can't be good. Actually for purity/accuracy of sound I would say the SS is better, for ear pleasing sensations the right combo of tubes/speakers can be really moving. 12AT7's were quite common as a preamp tube, if I remember correctly Audio Research used it in a number of their preamps in certain stages.