New amp for Altecs needed.

**Nipper** · January 9th, 2009, 05:46 PM

Hi everyone!

First post. I have been forced out of lurking by need.

Excellent forum I have enjoyed for a while thanks to all of you!

I need some good advice please....

What new amp would everyone recommend to drive Altec 846B's?
If you have time to explain why you recommend what you did that would be wonderful.

I would prefer an integrated amp and have only looked at a McIntosh MC6900 so far. The local dealer tells me this amp has about as much speaker protection as I could get and that makes it worth considering to me.

I'm open to any suggestions.

**DaveCan** · January 9th, 2009, 07:58 PM

Well I'm not an Altec user yet( hope to loose my virginity in 2009), and have only limited experience with tube amps I've heard, but I can highly recommend the Decware brand.. I bought the 6watt SEP Taboo amp from Decware a few years ago, and it's a lovely amp for sure. He just came out with another new model, and offers a few integrated amps as well. There are a few people using Decware amps, that have owned their share of quite high end and highly regarded gear, and have ended up selling them off after experiencing the Decware offerings.. Anyhow just my opinions, and for the most part I was very happy with my purchase after doing lots of research and talking to others first..
The only minor things I didn't like about my amp when it arrived were, the finish on the transformer wasn't that great and has a thumb or finger print in the paint, and the volume knobs all the way off position is at 2 o'clock, and all the way up is 12 o'clock, instead of a more normal 7 and 5 position etc, so some qc issues..
http://decware.com/

Dave

**Nipper** · January 9th, 2009, 10:13 PM

Thanks DaveCan!

I just spent over an hour on that website. That is very interesting. My last amp lasted over 30 years and I enjoyed every minute of it. I never needed to keep up with any new offerings.

Tube amps do fascinate me. I'm going to give away my age by saying when I was a child I used to love to look inside my fathers black and white Zenith TV and record player to see them glow.

I remember him taking the tubes to the store to use the tester. It seems every store had a tube tester back then.

I have heard plenty of people say tube amps are the way to go with these speakers but I have never tried one. When people describe them as having a "warm" sound I think slow responding or not so bright and I like the highs. I have also heard people say they prefer vinyl records because they sound warm. Personally I was glad to see them go. Im a digital guy all the way.

Am I interpreting this "warm sounding" description wrong?

**DaveCan** · January 10th, 2009, 03:05 AM

All I can give is my own prefs, and for me tubes are where it's at

.. Now that's not to say other amps are inferior or anything, and I wouldn't even dare to start a debate like that lol.. I know there are some Hybrid designs that some prefer, that are a combination of solid state and tubes, maybe that's where it's at? For me and my budget ,I'm very happy with what I chose, but there are many other great choices out there as well I'm sure, and some with many more rms watts.. Hopefully more knowledgeable people than myself will chime in and offer their advice and opinions..

We also had a TV set that had tubes when I was a kid, and I remember every now and then the TV repair man would come by and fix it for us.. I can remember one time when he came to fix our TV set I was watching him, and he had the back off the set, and I asked him where John Wayne was ( I totally believed everybody lived inside the TV set, and John Wayne was my hero lol), and he pointed to some part inside and said " he's in this part" I was totally amazed lol.. Ahh, the good ol days!

Dave

**oface1** · January 10th, 2009, 11:50 AM

Dave, that was funny!

Sounds like something my grandfather did to me all the time.

Welcome to the forum Nipper.

I have used Bottlehead 2A3 paramours, vintage ss rcvrs, PP tube amps, 6v6 pp amps, and now I am using a tripath amp/pre all in one.

They all have their +'s & -'s.

Have fun and enjoy.....

-chris

**Nipper** · January 10th, 2009, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by DaveCan

We also had a TV set that had tubes when I was a kid, and I remember every now and then the TV repair man would come by and fix it for us.. I can remember one time when he came to fix our TV set I was watching him, and he had the back off the set, and I asked him where John Wayne was ( I totally believed everybody lived inside the TV set, and John Wayne was my hero lol), and he pointed to some part inside and said " he's in this part" I was totally amazed lol.. Ahh, the good ol days!

Dave

Great story! And I understand too! Personally I was a Roy Rogers fan. I was glued to that old Zenith when Roy or Walt Disney hit the tube.

Thanks for your input Chris... which of amps you listed did you like best?

**oface1** · January 11th, 2009, 02:46 PM

Nipper,

I am not too partial to any one amp. Do not expect a reviewers style of explanations nor colorful words to go along with.

I find that I am more reactive to different types of speakers than I am to types of amps. But, I seem to like the mellower sound of tubes. Ok, I lied, I used the term mellow, but tubes seem to do it for me more so than SS. But this little T-amp I am using has been pretty eye opening as well.

I am not to partial to any one type of tube amp typology, but I dig the Bottlehead experience I have had. Great gear, support from a stateside company. Also you can post a thread about something that has been asked a million times and , still you will get a pleasant answer. MAINLY what I like about the B-head experience was the learning factor. I have been a little tweaker since I could crawl, and all my occupations have lead me to pursue acoustics in one form of another alongs of not only being a hobby.

When I was in the navy, I was involved with sonar,ASW, radar, and all sorts of NAV COM and crypto gear. I have been very fotunate that audio just happens to run coincide to my career paths. How this answeres your question , I do not know,,lol....

Just try out what ya can or demo what you can. And go from there. you know what you like that sounds good and I bet you will find it.

Good luck....

-chris

GM · January 11th, 2009, 04:35 PM

To my ears, a high quality auto-former coupled SS amp yields the best of both types and since even HE speakers need plenty of power to reproduce some source material's dynamics without clipping the amp, I recommend the MC7000 to match the 846B's music power rating if the budget allows.

GM

**Tom Brennan** · January 11th, 2009, 05:37 PM

The amp doesn't matter much. I run one set of Altecs with a Jolida tube amp, My 19s with a Denon SS HT receiver and my 890Cs with a Fisher tube amp. And I run some JBL horns bi-amped with a Tri-Path on the treble and a big-hog QSC on the bass.

All the amps work well and all the systems sound fine. Many amps sound good, I wouldn't get hung up on a single type.

Now what I'd do in your situation is get a Jolida 102. It sounds good, has sufficient power for good dynamics and it looks cool. Price ain't bad either. Did I say it looks cool?

**Nipper** · January 11th, 2009, 07:44 PM

Glad to see members helping here... Thank you all again. Honestly appreciated!

I just noticed I made a mistake on the McIntosh model number. It was the MA6900 I saw, not MC.

So far we have gone from a 2 watt amp to a 250 watt amp. And from tube to SS.

I'm listening!

Maybe a McIntosh MA2275 Integrated tube amp would do the trick. Has anyone actually gotten a dealer to loan you an amp to try? I would make me deathly ill to spend 4k on an amp and find out I didnt think it was great.

I know the speakers do the talking but mine change drastically with different amps. Over the years I have tried them with:

1. Sansui AU-9500 integrated amp, a Sansui 9090 receiver and a Pioneer SX1010 receiver. I might get beaten with Monster cable for this but all of these actually sounded great to me. Their age is a concern though. I dont want it to die and take my speakers with it. If there is something new that sounds like one of these.... Its SOLD.
I may be stuck in the 70's.

2. Phase Linear 700B power amp with a Phase Linear 4000 pre amp. Sound was OK but this got me a new horn driver.

A "little" too much power I think.

3. A newer Sony ES (something) receiver. I didnt care for this at all. Sounded bland, no life at all. I have nothing against Sony but I couldnt get that unhooked quick enough.

Does this help any?