New hifi tube amplifier day!

Gahr

Gahr

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During the last couple of months I have kind of rediscovered the joy of really LISTENING to music. I mean, just sitting down, doing nothing except listening. This has made me want to upgrade my stereo system.

In February I swapped my old NAD phono preamp for a ProJect tube preamp, bought used.

Last month my wife agreed to swap the old Dali loudspeakers for a set of Klipsch speakers. I found a demo pair of RP-160Ms for half the price of a new one.

Today I completed the upgrade by getting a used Xindak MT-3 integrated tube amplifier. I’ve been drooling over hifi tube amps for ages, but have never owned one until now. It’s a Chinese brand, so it was cheap, but the quality is pretty damn good. It weighs a hefty 41 pounds! I had reasonable expectations, but man, I’m totally blowm away. It blows my old NAD c316bee out of the water. I am by no means a hifi freak, but this amp instantly made listening a lot more fun. It has a fantastic midrange and clarity. And the separation of the instruments and stereo imaging is incredible.
A nice thing with all these upgrades is that I’ve sold all the old components as well, so I have hardly spent any money on the upgrades. I think even Adrian would have been happy.A0C75992-9835-4654-9A77-D903D6748B76.jpeg
 
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Tube audio amps are amazing, just like tube guitar amps. I used to have a Conrad-Johnson tube amp and tube preamp and they sounded devastating. I ended up selling them before a cross-country move with the intention of "upgrading" on the other side but never quite got around to it. Maybe you've inspired me!
 
Session 5 said:
I still have the stack of LP"s, but no longer have a turntable, now they are making a comeback.
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I think it's great albums are making a come back. With all those LP's it sounds like you need a nice record player set up. I remember my first super duper Montgomery Ward stereo record player/8-track in one. I think the speaker were like 5" or something. I think my frist record player is the one the used to be my grandmothers. I was one of those suitcase looking mono speaker ones. I used to listen to her Chubby Checker record when we visited her :)
 
Have plenty of albums still, and a few turntables. Tough finding good styli though. I really need a good needle for my Technics turntable.

Here’s a shot of just A-Ma. Got just as many on the other side of the wall from Ma-Z.

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I'm with you on that! I still have 2000 albums and about another thousand or so were " Lent " by my brothers and sisters while I was away at college. My game is any time I come across old tube HiFi's I buy them. recap them and use 2 HiFi's together for stereo. In the olden days people gave a crap about what they were doing!
 
SG John said:
Have plenty of albums still, and a few turntables. Tough finding good styli though. I really need a good needle for my Technics turntable.

Here’s a shot of just A-Ma. Got just as many on the other side of the wall from Ma-Z.

View attachment 43548
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I swapped the Ortofon 2M Red stylus for a 2M Blue. Made a big difference. The Red came with the ProJect turntable when I bought it, and my wife gave me the upgrade stylus for my birthday this year.:D
 
Session 5 said:
I still have the stack of LP"s, but no longer have a turntable, now they are making a comeback.
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That's me too. I sold off a most of my records many years ago when I switched to digital but still have a couple hundred in storage. No desire on my part to ever buy another turntable or go back to using vinyl so I don't know why I keep them other than sentimental value.
 
WOW! What a fantastic set-up! I bought a tube stereo amp recently, but it wasn't of the quality I was expecting and it went back...
 
This the exact Rotel tuner that I had, it worked great with my Pioneer turntable and speakers.


See the source image
 
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