Pluvia 7

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Dave, I'm planning to get a small 5 watts single ended tube amp. My room is pretty small, approx 10x12. I'm mostly listening to jazz and female jazz vocals. Just wondering, would it have enough power to drive the Pluvia 7 or should I look for a different tube amp?

Thx
 
I'll offer a second opinion - Dave's "main salon" is not a tiny room, and he's run more than a few single driver and multi-ways to "satisfactory" levels with SET amps- tube and SS of 5wpc or less.

120ft^2 is pretty small room - before it was repurposed for office / storage, I ran several Fostex and Alpair systems in my "little man" cave (approx twice that size) with a variety of EL84, 2A3 and 6CA7 SETs, none with more than 7watts . The room's acoustics were a much bigger problem than running out of power.
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
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Dave, I'm planning to get a small 5 watts single ended tube amp. My room is pretty small, approx 10x12. I'm mostly listening to jazz and female jazz vocals. Just wondering, would it have enough power to drive the Pluvia 7 or should I look for a different tube amp?

As Chris says my room is not tiny. A square footage does not convey its size as the peak of the ceiling is near 17 ft. Here is a description. FALL Listening Space - diyAudio

I currently am using an ACA (5w) in my system and driving less efficient speakers with XOs (a WAW) and do not finding it insufficient. I have also used a 2A3 with even less power. I can start exceeding their power levels if i turn it up louder than i usually do. One of the keys is how well behaved the amplifier is when it clips. SE amps are typically well behaved, even more so than a typically PP the amp. Some SS Class AB amps are not good in this respect so a much more powerful one is needed to do the same job.

dave
 
Wondering if NuForce STA -200 amp ( 80 watts / channel) would be overkill
for Pluvia 7 ? Would sound be more dynamic with better speed and bass ? It feels like that my current 5 watts SE tube amp lacking dynamic excitement that SS amp would "possibly" deliver .
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
80 watts per channel is more than you need but you only need to be carful with the volume control (but that is a normal situation) — too much power is generally better than too little.

The power output says nothing about its quality or how much synergy it will have with P7.

They say surprisingly little about the amplifier… isn’t it Class D? Some of those are getting pretty good, but i feel a well executed Class A or Class AB could have an edge.

How much do they want for that amp?

dave
 
I'll have to ask the seller first . I did listen amp last summer at friend's house hooked up on Wharfedale Reva 2 bookshelf speakers ( around 86 dB ) & to my ears it sounded pretty good. Wasn't too crazy about piano passages and female vocals ( a bit dull sounding ) I guess "crossover " was to blame but nonetheless it was dynamic sounding set up.
 
Wasn't too crazy about piano passages and female vocals ( a bit dull sounding )

don't ignore your gut feel - this amp didn't get you excited - move on

besides, you gotta build your own amp - how can you be a card carrying DIY guy without an active soldering iron ? :D

if you just gotta have something rather than nothing - get a cheapo amp ready to go from ePay and then look for something better
 
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If you do contemplate building your own amp, I can highly recommend any of the LM3886 models by Tom C - Neurochrome. Not all chip amp circuitry designs are created equal.
I’ve also built several class D amps with Sure, Yuan Jing and Hypex prefab boards and SMPS, and owned a variety of commercial class D / T amps from Topping, YJ & Kingrex, and the same can certainly be said for that category as well.
The DIY Audio store ACA Kit is a delightful sounding unit, and very popular here, but I happen to prefer the higher powered chimp amps myself. To each his own.
 
Not mine. I'm Strat guy ....

Cheers !
Fair enough, there is something almost too sensual about mid ‘50’s ES 350 - even before you pick the damned thing up.

But I digress.
 

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