Solid state amps

Has anyone used a sp 9 coupled with a solid state power amp. and what were the results.

Yep.

SP-8, not 9 sorry, originally running thru a Harman Kardon 3480. The HK has a pre out / main in on the back so you can use an external preamp. Sounded great! Much better on the CD thru the linestage. MUCH MUCH better on the phono stage.

Now the HK has been replace with a chipamp built on the LM3875. http://www.audiosector.com/ Ridiculously cheap and easy compared to the preamp. Less power than the HK but still plenty and again, better sound.

Saving my pennies for ST-120.

Was it a Nike commercial, "Just Do It!"

Tom

Thank you, I was a little worried. I plan on running an Adcom gfa 555 with it should be good.

If I remember right, those Adcoms were pretty good amps so yes, you should hear the difference, of course providing your speakers are up to the task.

When I built the SP-8, I was hopeful but figured if there really wasn't much difference I wouldn't be disappointed. Still a fun project right? Well, I wasn't disappointed. Could even hear the differnce between the cheap chinese tubes I started with and the NOS replacements. It's fun.

Post back when you're up and running and let us know how it turns out.

I have a lot of amps. The one I have had the longest is my 23 year old Adcom GFA555. Yes you will hear a difference. Building the tube preamp is a great first step, but be warned tubes and kit building is addictive.

the amp is bassy and the high are out standing but the mid range is suffering. I was wondering if some one could reccomend alternate tubes that would even it out The unit is a sp9 and came with JJ ecc83 s.

Today I shut off the sp9 before shutting off the Adcom 555 ii there were four loud pops then nothing I check all the fuses the 5 amp fuses on my vega ve12s were fried I replaced them but stil nothing. has anyone have a solution. the sp9 was factory wired.

All fixed, bad fuse in the amp. Lesson learned, pre amp on first and off last. A whole lotta sweating going on. An old dog can learn new tricks. The Sp9 just sounds better and better.

Wow that's crazy! Glad it came out right in the end.
I have a family member who can't remember the on off sequence.
I may buy one of the timer boards sold on here for that reason.
Next upgrade.

Also, I got a noticable improvement when I switched the cheap chinese tubes I started with for NOS RCA cleartops. I think my originals were <$10 each at my local electronics shop and the RCAs were around $30 each from Brent Jesse online. Worth the $ imho.

OOPs. Just realized you were asking about ECC83s/12AX7s; those were more expensive than the ECC82/12AU7 I was talking about.

Sorry!

When I thought I'd fried the tubes I went ahead and bought some EH 12x7s at $15.00 a pop oops wrong word I mean each.I'll try them out they may bring out the mid range better. I'll post when I find out the result

yes, always turn off the amp first, then the preamp last. Start up in reverse order, preamp on first, amp on last.
The EH tubes should sound better than the JJs or chinese tubes.

Far better sound from the EH tubes across the frequency spectrum .The tone is nostalgic to me, Back when most equipment were tubes and SS just starting to make inroads.