Please help me determine amp candidates

[Loftprojection]

Hello, I've been wanting to upgrade my amp for a while but I don't seem to be able to find the ideal candidate.

Must have; less than $4k with a remote for volume adjustment, lush and musical sounding, pre-amp out or low watts amp out.

My setup is a Bluesound source to MHDT Orchid tube DAD to a Unison Research EL34 tube amp to Meze Empyrean.

Sound wise I'm very close to be in nirvana, not changing amp for better sound but a tiny bit more resolution and tiny bit more bass impact would be welcome. Changing amp to get a remote and output to feed some desktop speakers.

I've been tempted by many amps but all of them don't meet my specs. Here are the amps I've looked at that have a remote and some output, did I overlook something?

- Audiovalve RKV HAA (perfect but company on the edge of bankrupt)
- Felyks Euphoria (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- LTA MZ3 (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Auris HA2-SF (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Luxman SQ-N150 (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Rogue RH-5 (probably not as tube sounding as I'd like)
- Ampandsound (perfect but no remote)

Many others seem like great candidates sound wise but either have no remote or no output.

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

 

[whitefang]

Check out Prima Luna Integrated amp.
You may also try to ask the manufacturer to build you a custom one with remote controlled pots/stepped attentuator such as this.

https://khozmo.com/64_steps_relay_khozmo_attenuator.html

 

[kvik]

If you can’t find it, why not have it custom made? A budget like that would get you all the things on your list.

 

[DownToThis]

Hello, I've been wanting to upgrade my amp for a while but I don't seem to be able to find the ideal candidate.

Must have; less than $4k with a remote for volume adjustment, lush and musical sounding, pre-amp out or low watts amp out.

My setup is a Bluesound source to MHDT Orchid tube DAD to a Unison Research EL34 tube amp to Meze Empyrean.

Sound wise I'm very close to be in nirvana, not changing amp for better sound but a tiny bit more resolution and tiny bit more bass impact would be welcome. Changing amp to get a remote and output to feed some desktop speakers.

I've been tempted by many amps but all of them don't meet my specs. Here are the amps I've looked at that have a remote and some output, did I overlook something?

- Audiovalve RKV HAA (perfect but company on the edge of bankrupt)
- Felyks Euphoria (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- LTA MZ3 (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Auris HA2-SF (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Luxman SQ-N150 (not reputed to have a lush tube sound)
- Rogue RH-5 (probably not as tube sounding as I'd like)
- Ampandsound (perfect but no remote)

Many others seem like great candidates sound wise but either have no remote or no output.

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

I have the empyrean and recently went with the MHDT Orchid and LTA MZ3. The dac/amp havent come in yet but i'd be interested in what you end up deciding on. I went to LTA and tried the MZ2 and MZ3 with the borderpatrol and that's what sold me. I havent tried any of the other amps on your list though

 

[Loftprojection]

I have the empyrean and recently went with the MHDT Orchid and LTA MZ3. The dac/amp havent come in yet but i'd be interested in what you end up deciding on. I went to LTA and tried the MZ2 and MZ3 with the borderpatrol and that's what sold me. I havent tried any of the other amps on your list though

Well I can tell you right now that you should be happy with the Orchid. I had the Paradisea before that and the Orchid is quite an upgrade. Change the stock tube though, it’s not the greatest.

I’ll be happy to read about your MZ3, specially if you try it with big tubes versus the stock small ones. I suspect it might get you more of the tube lushness I love.

 

[Loftprojection]

If you can’t find it, why not have it custom made? A budget like that would get you all the things on your list.

Which company does customs you recommend?

 

[kvik]

I wonder if the desired improvements in sound (tiny bit more resolution and tiny bit more bass impact) could be archieved in a less drastic/costly way than swapping out the Unison amp.

Did you ever look into improving your source? I know little of Bluesound, but one of the usual suspects is the power supply,

How about Orchid, did you do anything there? tube-rolling, double-crown chip, caps, and that sort of thing.

It just seems to me that with such minor improvements you could end up chasing the right substitution amp forever, when you basically already have it.


Otherwise perhaps a passive preamp with remote between DAC and HPA/Speakers could work, instead of a new amp. With your budget you could pick from one of the upper shelves.


I am a hesitant about recommending a specific custom amp builder. There are too many and I know too little about them and what their amps sound like (lushness appears to be a priority to you).

You may have come across this list already. I believe more than a few on that list will be open to adding a preamp output and a remote VC to their existing designs (or redesign to meet your needs).

 

[Loftprojection]

I wonder if the desired improvements in sound (tiny bit more resolution and tiny bit more bass impact) could be archieved in a less drastic/costly way than swapping out the Unison amp.

Did you ever look into improving your source? I know little of Bluesound, but one of the usual suspects is the power supply,

How about Orchid, did you do anything there? tube-rolling, double-crown chip, caps, and that sort of thing.

It just seems to me that with such minor improvements you could end up chasing the right substitution amp forever, when you basically already have it.


Otherwise perhaps a passive preamp with remote between DAC and HPA/Speakers could work, instead of a new amp. With your budget you could pick from one of the upper shelves.


I am a hesitant about recommending a specific custom amp builder. There are too many and I know too little about them and what their amps sound like (lushness appears to be a priority to you).

You may have come across this list already. I believe more than a few on that list will be open to adding a preamp output and a remote VC to their existing designs (or redesign to meet your needs).

Hello, thanks for your suggestions. The Unison SH head amp is a very nice sounding amp that satisfies me but it has no remote and no output, if it had both I would probably be content with current my setup. As I said, sound wise I'm happy and I know I could extract a bit more out of my source/DAC if I wanted.

It's too bad AudioValve seems to be going out of business, their headphone amps definitely seem to have what I'm looking for. The LTA MZ3 could be a good candidate but I'm afraid their sound maybe is a bit too neutral for my taste. I might try my luck on it since they have an easy return policy but I was asking the folks here in case I would have overlooked a good candidate that meets my criterias.

 

[kvik]

I had a look through my list. The remote is the main challenge. The Linear Tube Audio (microZOTL) stuff has one, the Rogue stuff has one, and a Modwright preamp has it, and that's it.

I am not fully aware of what remote VCs are available, but Alps has a motorized version, and the Khozmo option was mentioned already. Again, if you can find the right amp, then simply just ask if they would put in a remote VC.

Interesting that so few has remote VC, I wonder why.