Stereo: What are your favorite separates? Stereo Amp/pre-amp for under $2000 ea?
Make/Model please of what you consider the Best around that price range or lower. I am interested in stereo setups because music is more important to me than HT and in my opinion stereo does music better (at least currently).
Feel free to include your opinions on tube vs solid state.
Also indicate power rating (at 8ohms) of amps per chan if you know off the top of your head. Thanks.
many people will consider tubes to be superior to transistors for music and radio. transistors have a cold yet accurate sound that many audiophiles think lacks sufficient "feeling" or "warmth". many live musicians and audiophiles prefer the warm, rich sound that tubes can afford to music, not to mention their raw current handling capabilities. tube amps are rated anywhere from 1 watt monoblocks (don't judge till you hear 'em) for speakers with sensitivities above 110dB/Wm to 2000 watt concert cabinet drivers. for some reason, older transistor amps had higher current outputs for their watt ratings which yeilded sound output disproportional to modern amps. i have two recievers (a realistic and a pioneer) from the early 80's that claim only 25 and 30 WRMS, yet drive my 15' mach ones harder than anything else i have ever hooked those beasts up to. (yeah, i know i said pioneer and realistic. got them all from a thrift store for $100. hey, just because i'm poor doesn't mean i don't know what i'm talking about) the only disadvantages of tubes to transistorized amps are greater power consumption, larger cabinets, high heat generation, long warm-up time, price and replacability. oh, and some people also purchase their amps as single-channel sets to achieve better channel seperation.