What Mc'tube?

[crwilli]

Folks,

I have decided to step into a pair of Infinity Betas and am now looking for my second amp. I will drive the woofer columns with my 352 but am thinking of what else to get. My default is to get another 352 but also seriously leaning toward tube power for the mid/high panels. I have seen 2102s and various 275s in the same price range (although 275s seem to come in many varieties at wildly different prices). Have also looked at a baby step with a VTL ST 80...

I am looking for thoughts on those varieties and a comparison to the 2102. Finally any Beta owners with thoughts on a clean SS vs a tube amp for the upper panels.

Thank you for your experience and Merry Christmas everyone!

Craig

[IRSBeta]

This is my first post here, I think. Anyhow, addressing the portion of your Post that referrers to "...other SS or tube amps," I have used Bob Carver's new mono block Cherry 180's on my Infinity IRS Betas. They sounded wonderful, but 200Wrms wasn't enough for me. The amps had absolutely no problems driving the sometimes difficult impedance dips the mids/highs tower can show an amplifier. I was using two channels of a Sunfire Signature Cinema Grand 5ch. Architect''s Choice Series II amp. to run the bass towers. Sunfire has 850watts available @4ohms per channel. I am now running two (Vertically bi-amplified) Sunfire Sig. CG (series II) amps and couldn't be happier. The availability of extra headroom the Sunfires offer, as opposed to the Cherries, is what I like. If you are not a Power Hog like me, you may like the 200watt Cherries. They do sound warmer than the Sunfire amps. I find with really good equipment you tend to turn up the volume a little more & a little more as an album/disc progress thru its cycle...and running out of power is a bit of a downer when you are really in the "zone" feeling it.

I'm not sure how to post the "owned" equipment at the bottom of the post like others have, but here is what I am running in the living room.
Pre Amp - McIntosh C500 Solid State
Room Correction - McIntosh Men220 I use the X-over function w/ the Betas as well
Power Amps - two Sunfire Signature Cinema Grand 5ch. Architect''s Choice Series II
Bass Attenuator/Volume Control - NHT (PVC) I have, but no longer use the servo unit infinity supplied
Sources - 2013 Apple Mac Mini w/ 8gigs of RAM and the 256gig solid state HD. CD transport is an Audio GD CD-7FV. DAC is an Audio GD Master 7. Tuner is a CarverTX-12.
Speakers - Infinity IRS Betas (x-overs in the mids/highs towers have been completely tuned-up w/ the three tone controls bypassed)
Cables & Interconnects - All Blue Jeans Cables (RCA LC-1 interconnects & BJC-10 White 10AWG speaker wire/cable)

and now the part where people begin to hate me and wonder if i'm on Crack.....95% of the music I listen to via my Apple Mac Mini is in the Mp3 (320kbps & 256kbps) format. Please stop hissing and booing at me. I purchased a lot of music from iTunes back in the day; selling my soul to the Mp3 devil at the same time. Jus continued down The Darkside ever since.

Anyway Crwillie, I have not heard Mc amps on a pair of Betas before, but if they are anything like their preamps it should be heavenly. Sunfire just had the most bang-for-the-buck at the time and have served me extremely well.

[Masterlu]

IRSBeta... Welcome!

[IRSBeta]

Thank you for the "Welcome" Masterlu.

I've lurked for a few years now, but finally decide to rear my ugly head.

[crwilli]

IRSBeta, thank you for the input. I am hoping my 352 has enough grunt to drive the bass panels and wonder, do the mid/high panels need 200+ of low impedance power? If so, I will probably pick up another 352. Although I am thinking tubes, I can't swing a high powered tube amp. I will research the Carvers you mentioned.

[jdandy]

IRSBeta.......Welcome to Audio Aficionado.


MP3's??? .

[IRSBeta]

I agree that another MC352 would serve you well. The Bass towers are not difficult to drive load-wise, but as you know bass drivers need power. The mid/highs tower present a pretty wicked load and can eat up power/current like no other. I was able to talk with Bob Carver several times while my amps were being built and he said that these new tube amps were design to run the Appogee (1 ohm only version) Scintillas, so the Betas mids/highs tower shouldn't give them any problem. Again, I'm not sure of your listening habits, so 200watts may suffice, but a generous amount of headroom is a beautiful thing.
Regarding tubes, I never had or heard tube equipment before. I read that folks talked highly about tube gear, so I gave it a try with the Carver Cherry 180's. I was going back and forth on wether to purchase the tube C500 or the solid state C500. I was told that I should be careful as to not to go all tube (pre-amp & amp) because it would possibly sound too "tubby." I never did get a chance to hear the Betas with a tube pre-amp with the tube amps, but in hindsight I don't think it would have been too "tubby." anyhow, I'm back to all solid state and free of worry of tube-life on my gear. Note: had a couple of tubes go and had to get the amp serviced to replace a resistor or two. At some point I may revisit tubes again. It's nice that the Mac 2301's won't have that resistor/service-call issue when a tube Goes.

Once more, I'd get another MC352 and roll that way, but vertically bi-amp the 352's



Thank you for the "welcome" jdandy.

[IRSBeta]

MP3's??? . [/QUOTE]


Clutch the pearls!!! Yes MP3's LOL

If I had to do it all over again I would have done the Wave file 1:1 transfer of the CD's I owned and came across. Honestly though, I CAN hear a difference between Wave files vs Mp3 files in an A/B back & forth, back & forth type comparison; however, without A/B-ing, I can't really tell. I accept that my hearing must be off, but hey...

[quinlanmw]

Here's my two cents on the tube amp question...some years back I was able to do a lengthy side by side comparison of the MC 275 V and the MC 2102 on my home system.. They were very close, but to my ear the MC275 came out the clear winner.

I don't think you would be unhappy with either, but after my listening test I came away with tremendous respect for the MC 275. It's still on my wish list...some day I hope to have two to drive my Klipschorns.

[IRSBeta]

I know the Klipschhorns have a rather high efficiency rating. In your experience, what would be the lowest efficiency rating you would go with when running a single MC275 or two MC275 amps?