warm, smooth amp recommendations pls

[DavidF]

I agree with Piglet.

I have two boys, a 4 year old and a 10 month old, and I listen to symphonic music...loud (I have a pair of horns ). And, so far, they never woke up because of my music.

There you go!

 

[zeabre]

Very nice speakers...had the S5s, now running the SA1. As far as amps go, I have Quad IIs, revamped, but prefer my Primare I30...Spendor Primare combination has exactly the sound I think you'd like.

 

[Nomoretweaks]

Are you sure you need a "warm" amp? For Hendrix ?? I imagine you lower the level with your current amp and it sounds thin, that's why you need a warmer one..Am I correct? If you are looking for a right balance at low levels it is not nesessray a "warm" one, which will do the trick, although some warmer sounding amps will give you an impression of a more "balanced" sound at low levels. But it might be just an illusion, and you will soon realise that there is a lot of information missing further up the freq. range. I would look for an amp with a "quality first watt" so to speak. Valves are an obvious choice of course, but there are some, albeit few, SS amp which are good in this dept. due to their circuits. One relatively cheap I had, which sounded excellent at low levels was Lavardin IS, although rare, you can find it for well under 1,000 used. I would actually second Quad 306 - but only with a decent valve preamp - a cheap EAR (what was its number - the small black box, the cheapest one ? 834L ?). 306+this preamp with NOS valves sounded surprisingly nice in my system at low levels. But changing stock valves would be paramount imho.

 

[RobHolt]

The 306 is a nice little amp without sonic character IMO. Best way to make it sound warm is to pop a 34 in front of it and flip the tilt control. Not fashionable but it'll do the trick.

 

[jazzpioneer]

Are you sure you need a "warm" amp? For Hendrix ?? I imagine you lower the level with your current amp and it sounds thin, that's why you need a warmer one..Am I correct? .

Yep - bang on. My current amp sounds great when I crank it up....

This is a great forum - should have joined a long time ago! Many thanks for everyone's input. More always welcome!

 

[Coda II]

Been having a bit of a swap around with amps over recent months and am in a not dissimilar position wrt under four sleeping directly above speakers and have, like a number of posters, never made things over quiet.
Current set up is Croft Micro25 pre (on loan) with Sugden A21aP power. I did for some time think of a valve integrated or power, but having tried a few, decided that the issues they brought in terms of usability and safety for the whole family were not outweighed by a sufficient improvement in enjoyment. The amp combination above seems to me at the moment to do enough to suggest that a valve pre/ss power is the most viable long term solution for me.
The Sugden replaced a Quad 909 - direct descendant of the 306 and, while I wouldn't disagree with what has been said up thread, for me the Sugden does do significantly better at tonal colour - without being obviously coloured - and at lower levels I think that makes a big difference. The Croft is currently replacing a TVC pre and it doesn't have the top end crispness that the TVC does but whereas in the past I have missed that aspect when trying other pres, the Croft seems to bring so much else that the current sound is complete in itself.
Lastly this combination never comes across as 'loud' even when the volume control is treated with abandon - it just gets bigger.

 

[larkrise]

Without doubt one of the best valve preamps I have come across for a long time has been the Graaf pre's. In particular a WFB One which i thought had the edge on a 13.5 MK2 which costs thousands more. It has exactly the sound you are after. I managed to find one recently - outstanding and a superb phonostage too.