Any audiophiles here?

[thebigz]

I have no idea where on the internet to ask, so I figure some guys here would know...

I'm trying to piece together an old record player setup. I have the player, a preamp, and the speakers, I just need a good power amp. Any suggestions for a good tube power amp? Would a rack unit do the trick? There is a Peavey classic 60/60 locally that is a good deal. Would this do the trick or should I avoid using guitar gear at all?

[Rsmacker]

That would do the trick, provided your speakers are man enough.

[Hellbat]

I would tend to look for a good solid state for that. I think due to the nature of the rest of the signal chain, most guitar/bass centric instrument amps don't care about flat response up to 20kHz. I know Mesa Boogie made some stereo tube music amps, but they were ridiculously priced IIRC, as are most tube "stereo" amps like McIntosh etc.

If you want tons of power, look for a good deal on a used Bryston 4B or something similar.

[Cygnus X1]

Good suggestion on the Bryston.

Avoid guitar/bass/PA amps for this.

[DonP]

I have a Dynaco SCA-35 tube amp for use with the record player.

One issue I think I have is that I'm using modern speakers with the amp.

Back in the tube days, amps weren't very powerful but speakers were very efficient.

Today, Amp have huge amounts of (bogus?) power, but speakers are less efficient to deal with the power and to provide a flat frequency response.

So what I'm saying is if you go for a tube amp, try to find speakers made in the era of the amp, or you'll have to crank the amp to get it loud.

And if you use old speakers with a new amp, you'll likely blow them because they weren't designed to handle all the power.

[Cygnus X1]

My power amp is a 4x6L6GC with 12AX7's for phase inverters.
Made it with a 50's Conn organ chassis and iron.
Since this is in the garage shop I'm using PA speakers/horns.
Sounds fine especially when wheeled up.

Similar wattage SS doesn't put out anywhere near the power as the tube power amp IMO.
I had to run a Peavey CS800 much harder to get the same volume, and the tone sucked overall.
Did the same comparison with a Carvin power amp.
Same result.

[YetAnotherOne]

Audiogon is a fun site on which to troll through audiophile gear that's on the secondary market:

http://app.audiogon.com/

I second the thoughts above about not using an instrument amp whose frequency response may roll off outside the range of the instrument(s) for which it was designed.

If it were me and if budget were a concern at all I'd buy a pair of solid state Emotiva XPA-1 monoblocks. Best bang-for-the-buck in the low end audiophile market I think. The trick with any reproduction amp is to avoid clipping which implies that you want to have a very large amount of available headroom so that you'll never hit the rails.

Disclaimer: no one is going to confuse me with an audiophile; I'll not be caught buying cables that cost hundreds of dollars per foot; dogs couldn't hear the difference in most of the very high end gear, guitar players sure can't either.

[Newc]

If I can't hear every crack and pop of my vinyl platters, then it's not worth it.:p

[Cygnus X1]

No doubt.
Not an audiophile by that definition either.
I do things where I can hear a difference.
And tubes do sound more "organic".
The test is in listening to symphonic recordings, and the rest falls in line.

Or, the old DSOTM test.
If it can't do the 60Hz beat and the first few notes with some clarity, it fails!
"Breathe, breathe in the air,
Don't be afraid to care..."