Hybrid tube amps?

[pavulon]

Am trying to find an amp to power a pair of used Klipsch La Scala AL5 speakers that should arrive soon. I'd like the amp to be bluetooth and (future) subwoofer output capable. Hybrid tube amps seem plentiful, affordable and satisfy both asks for a home system. I don't need to blow the windows out of my house to enjoy music and I'd like to enjoy the system without turning it into another hobby. All advice offered will be appreciated.

[70SATMan]

With the sensitivity of the LaScalas you won't need a big amp either. I've heard a couple of Jolida amps paired with heritage Klipsch and seemed a good match to my ears. But, what do I know, I spent 4.5 yrs stationed on an Aircraft Carrier and they parked running C2s right above my work shop and I slept right under the stop for Cat2, LOL.

[herr_oberst]

La Scalas automatically put you into the hobby category. It's just the nature of the beast. People will find out you have 'em, ask questions, you'll want to give intelligent answers, so you'll start with a quick look under the hood and pretty soon you'll be comparing a work bench full of crossovers and capacitors.

Lucky bastard. :-)

[sc_rufctr]

I don't know a lot about them but I was thinking about building one from a locally available kit.
(Class A: Means you don't need a lot of power.)

Tubes? You could spend a life time learning about them.
- Some good ones a dirt cheap others not so much.

[pavulon]

Thanks to all so far. I hope they are terrific or that I can't appreciate the difference between them and terrific. That they are used and not that old has me a bit concerned but unless they are lost or destroyed in transport, I own 'em. My goal is to enjoy them and to not waste time falling farther into a rabbit hole because I have other stuff I want to work on.

[ramonesfreak]

your a lucky man

if they were mine i would power them with a Decware MODEL SE84UFO25. a whopping 2 watts is all you need since those speakers are 109 db sensitivity
https://www.decware.com/newsite/SE84UFO25.html

if you have to degrade your fidelity with bluetooth, you could add a separate bluetooth receiver for very cheap or a streamer

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Am trying to find an amp to power a pair of used Klipsch La Scala AL5 speakers that should arrive soon. I'd like the amp to be bluetooth and (future) subwoofer output capable. Hybrid tube amps seem plentiful, affordable and satisfy both asks for a home system. I don't need to blow the windows out of my house to enjoy music and I'd like to enjoy the system without turning it into another hobby. All advice offered will be appreciated.

Check out McIntosh.with a niles spk1

[Dpmulvan]

Al5’s and Bluetooth seriously?? Like plugging a Chinese guitar into a dumble.

[ramonesfreak]

whatever you decide…..you really don’t want a high watt solid state amplifier with such sensitive speakers

and hybrid amps…..not worth looking into in my opinion. you’ll never notice the tubeyness with a hybrid. there really is no point to these. if you want tube sound, buy a tube integrated

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Thanks to all so far. I hope they are terrific or that I can't appreciate the difference between them and terrific. That they are used and not that old has me a bit concerned but unless they are lost or destroyed in transport, I own 'em. My goal is to enjoy them and to not waste time falling farther into a rabbit hole because I have other stuff I want to work on.

The hole is deep, could I ask what kind of music you’ll be listening to.

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Thanks to all so far. I hope they are terrific or that I can't appreciate the difference between them and terrific. That they are used and not that old has me a bit concerned but unless they are lost or destroyed in transport, I own 'em. My goal is to enjoy them and to not waste time falling farther into a rabbit hole because I have other stuff I want to work on.

i wouldn’t be worried that there’s something wrong with them. these speakers are not for everybody. people with too much money who don’t know what they are doing buy them (I hope that isnt you) because they are beautiful to look at, pair them with the wrong amp and then get disappointed. plus, the horn sound is unique and not what some people expect which makes it difficult to justify the space they take up and then get sold

i know you don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, but you’ll need to give some thought and do some research now in order to match them with the proper amp. in other words, the speakers reauirements take priority over your own (hybrid, bluetooth, subwoofer etc).

i don’t like inexpensive chinese tube amps. not only can you burn your house down, you won’t get the service you need, should you need it and i don’t like PCB with tube amps (others with argue it makes no difference but regarding servicing, it definitely does)

there are quite a few boutique builders like Decware i mentioned that make hand wired circuits and provide lifetime service. plus, anyone can work on a hand wired circuit if you have someone local you prefer for service

i am of course a huge mcintosh fan and if your budget allows, i would look into a nice used piece

[GH85Carrera]

My CPA has a side business of repairing and selling tube based amps and tubes. He said he would never admit to his wife how much money his home stereo setup costs. Most of his stuff he bought as broken and he repaired yet it is still high end.

He has a decent size room at his office that is just to store all the tubes and amps to be repaired.

[ltusler]

Check out:
https://forums.pelicanparts.com/community.klipsch.com/index.php
if you haven't already.

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

Al5’s and Bluetooth seriously?? Like plugging a Chinese guitar into a dumble.

I have kids who have phones.

[ramonesfreak]

you can use one of these
https://www.amazon.com/bluetooth-receiver/s?k=bluetooth+receiver

I use one in the garage and basement systems. works fine....i think bluetooth sounds like garbage but it does work and for kids, and maybe some adults, it does the job

[aschen]

what are your other sources besides BT? Need a phono stage or other analog ins? Approx budget?


Main tubeyness sound comes from high output impedance and distortion characteristics. Most of this is from the output stage and transformers so lost with hybrid

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

i wouldn’t be worried that there’s something wrong with them. these speakers are not for everybody. people with too much money who don’t know what they are doing buy them (I hope that isnt you) because they are beautiful to look at, pair them with the wrong amp and then get disappointed. plus, the horn sound is unique and not what some people expect which makes it difficult to justify the space they take up and then get sold

i know you don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, but you’ll need to give some thought and do some research now in order to match them with the proper amp. in other words, the speakers reauirements take priority over your own (hybrid, bluetooth, subwoofer etc).

i don’t like inexpensive chinese tube amps. not only can you burn your house down, you won’t get the service you need, should you need it and i don’t like PCB with tube amps (others with argue it makes no difference but regarding servicing, it definitely does)

there are quite a few boutique builders like Decware i mentioned that make hand wired circuits and provide lifetime service. plus, anyone can work on a hand wired circuit if you have someone local you prefer for service

i am of course a huge mcintosh fan and if your budget allows, i would look into a nice used piece

I hope to avoid being the disappointed guy who re-sells so hedged my bet by buying used. They are certainly big but I no longer need a "kitchen pass" on purchases or interior decorating. After that, I'm okay with asking for help and appreciate the expertise of others as I know getting great sound from these is unlikely to be accidental.

Ultimately, I try to buy things that can earn their keep for longer than my time.

[ramonesfreak]

haha im dealing with a "kitchen pass" at the moment regarding some hi-fi upgrades I want to make. In all fairness to my wife, our kitchen is a serious pile of crap

If we knew your budget and what sources you intend to use, we could give you better recommendations

Last winter I became totally obsessed with high sensitivity speakers paired to low wattage tube amps. I spent 5 months (I was out of work) watching youtube videos and reading on-line about this most definitely non-mainstream approach to home audio

[908/930]

There are some pretty good integrated tube amps out there, ARC and Bat, Pass Labs are a couple of them, do you already have a pre amp sitting around. Unless you really want to play with tubes, a good quality solid state also works well with those speakers, ideally something that is class A that are usually lower powered, a used Pass Labs XA 30 or XA 25 would run them really well but are fairly expensive and give off a fair amount of heat. Something like a McCormack DNA .5 would also be a good fit, older but really good sounding amp. If you end up underpowered the amp will likely have a hard time keeping the 15' woofer under control, that really depends what volume you intend to listen to them, if just background plug a transistor radio into them. The last set I listened to was about 30 years ago and were powered by a Adcom 555, at the time sounded really good to me, but think the DNA .5 would be better. Hopefully going into a large room.

[Spud]

Welcome to the La Scala club!

Oh boy you're in for a treat. I'd lusted after La Scalas since first hearing them as a kid in HS back in 1980. My COVID project last winter was to build a pair of La Scala clones using mostly vintage Klipsch drivers:




They came out better than I could have hoped, the sound is just stunning. I have been running them with a McIntosh 4100 receiver (an excellent vintage Mac piece) and while they sounded great, I really wanted to try them with a low watt SET/SEP amp.

After some research I reached out to Dennis Had (retired founder/CEO of Cary Audio) to have him build me a SEP amp. Just arrived yesterday, and while its still breaking in, I can tell you the combination is magic. Its running KT88 power tubes and is putting out about 9w:



I'm now using the Mac4100 as a pre-amp feeding directly to the Fire-Bottle.

For streaming, I'm using a "blueMe HD" and I'm super happy with the sound from that guy.