Dared Tube Amps

[BearcatSandor]

Long and sad story short, my home caught fire right before Thanksgiving. My system is dead.

So i was looking around at tube amps today with a eye to actually trying something out. Obviously i will be purchasing Martins at some point, hopefully a Summit but probably a Vantage.

I discovered a company called Dared. They make beautiful and inexpensive SET amps. Are they to good to be true?

http://home.sharednet.com/1stlook/pages/standard.cfm?url=zestek&a=0&other=9382

There was a tiff on www.audioasylum.com/ in the set form about some dealer giving reviews of his own products, but i don't know if this actually reflects on the company or just a crummy dealer. Also the opinions were so heated i kinda distrusted them.

I can find very few reviews on them. Only 2 infact.

There is a new product that connects directly to a USB port on a computer which excites me greatly: http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/dared/dared.html

Anyway, any input?

 

[Reverb2009]

Never heard of them before, but the price is right.

 

[Craig]

I've never had the opportunity to hear any of the Dared amps. They are probably a good value but they are typically low powered and therefore I would not try to match them up with MLs. I would go with a tube amp with a minimum of 50-60 watts.

That Tubed USB DAC/Headphone/Integrated Amp is pretty cool and I don't of anything else on the market like that.

 

[twich54]

When I purchased my Vantage speakers I tried them with my Jolida 302-B (50w) It's a EL-34 output, push/pull configuration. I could tell right away it wasn't going to work. I personaly would not run them with anything less than 75-100 watts. The classic remake of the Mac "275" comes to mind.

 

[BearcatSandor]

Wow. I'm really surprised to hear you all say that the MLs will need more power. My system that burned (*ears down*) was a Carver TFM-55x and a pair of Definitive technology BP-2002s (hey, it was the best i could do at the time).

My BP-2002s had a sensitivity of 92db, the same as the Summits. My Carver was capable of putting out 380 watts, but i *never* in 7 years of ownership of that system saw it put out more then 1 or 2 watts at my usual listening levels. Bear in mind this is from reading those cool meters on the front.

So, how can it be that i would need that much more wattage with the Summits or any other martins? When am i ever gonna use 50 watts?!
Will they not run at all? If they would just sound bad, what is "bad"?

What am i not understanding here?

 

[Spike]

When I purchased my Vantage speakers I tried them with my Jolida 302-B (50w) It's a EL-34 output, push/pull configuration. I could tell right away it wasn't going to work. I personaly would not run them with anything less than 75-100 watts. The classic remake of the Mac "275" comes to mind.

I have the exact opposite experience with my ReQuests where the 50wpc SixPacs offer more finesse than the 300wpc Classe' while not taking a backseat to the Classe' at all in terms of loudness & volume. With the SixPacs driving full-range, I got 98db+ registered at my listening position 12' away and that was plenty loud for me. On the other hand, the ARC VT100 (100wpc) gave hints of running out of steam when pushed. My take? It's all in the implementation of the amplifier and the SixPacs are examples of good design coming from Dennis Had.
Now, the Vantage and Summits are more efficient, plus the embedded 200wpc amplifier for the bass, relieving your main amp from bass-duty, I don't see any reason for needing more than 50wpc. The caveat here is that the electrostatic panels present a wide impedance swing which present a tough load on the tube-amplifier. In this case, just having more watts at the output does not help. A beefy power-supply capable of pumping out some current is what you need here.

Spike

 

[Wardsweb]

Which amps are you looking at? You could ask over on http://audiokarma.org/forums/ in the tube section. With over 11,000 members you should get a quick responce.

FYI: I run my CLS with Shanling SP-80 amps. These are 50 watt push/pull and have no problem with the load. Before the tubes I used a Carver A-760x that was good down to one ohm and very high current. The tubes sound better to me.