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Beginner in Need of Direction

I've got a pretty strong interest in both tubes and DIY projects and I think that it might be fun to build something this summer. Though I have no experience soldering, I know someone who would be willing to help me with it, but he doesn't really have much of an interest in audio. I just need a little bit of help selecting a project.

In general, I like a warm, but very dynamic and puncy sound. I listen to mainly indie rock and folk. Most of my source material is vinyl, I much prefer the sound of it to digital. I really like the sound of my Grado sr-60's, but I wish the highs were a bit sweeter. My speakers are Spendor s3/5's. I had them running off a McIntosh ma6100, but I decided after trying out a NAD 3020 I had laying around that I liked the punchiness of the NAD better. I find this combination to work surprisingly well for the music I want. I find that it can do rock a lot better than one might imagine, and I can turn it up to pretty decent volumes as well. I could always use a bit more bass, volume, dynamics, warmth, but I don't want anything mushy sounding; I definetely want something that can rock. On the other hand, I really don't want anything thin, bright, or harsh sounding either.

With that in mind...would a tube project be right for me given my preferences and listening habits, or would I be better off sticking to solid state?

One of the ideas I've had is fixing up a Scott 222c. Would this be too ambitious for a beginner with no experience? Also, I'm not sure it would be quite powerful enough to drive the Spendors, so I might have to change speakers. I'm open to that, if it would be worthwhile. As a plus, I've read it has an excellent phono stage built in, so that would be one less thing I'd have to buy.

Another idea is buying a kit from Bottlehead. I could get a S.E.X. and build a set of Pi Studio 2 speakers or something like that to see if I liked it. This would also be good because it could double as a headphone amp for my Grados (which I may upgrade) because I often have to listen with headphones at night. I could also build a Hagerman Bugle as a phono stage. Another direction I could go would be to build a foreplay. I could pair that with a Dynaco st-70 and use again use Hagerman Bugle as a phono-pre. While I was fixing up the Dynaco the Foreplay and Hagerman could be fed into the power section of the NAD 3020. I think the Dynacos would probably be strong enough to power my speakers, but I might considering listening to others once I had tubes in my system.

What do you think of these things? Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

Thanks.


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Topic - Beginner in Need of Direction - gfw 14:11:19 05/5/06 (13)


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