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john03
12-27-2013, 04:30 AM
I had a onkyo amp it took a **** after many years rather than fix it I went and bought a harman kardon hk3490 now my onkyo I think had more balls and sounded better even though it was only a 60 watt amp as opposed to the hk3490 being 120 watt? so I was thinking on buying a used carver tfm 15cb or tfm 25 anybody wanna chime in on this???????

StevenSurprenant
12-27-2013, 08:07 AM
I've owned a few Carvers but I'm not sure they will be what you want. For instance, I tried a 60 watt Carver TFM 6C (I think) against a 30 watt Pass Labs Aleph3. The Carver was going into clipping (according to the clip lights) and the Pass was right there with it playing in the other channel. If there was any distortion I couldn't hear it. On top of that, the sound quality of the Pass was far superior.

I'm not saying that the Carver is bad, but I think you might be doing more of a lateral move rather than a step up. I think some more opinions are in order to be of any use to you.

john03
12-27-2013, 02:32 PM
i had heard a carver tfm 15cb back in the day and it rocked i know one thing this new harman hk3490 seems muffled and doesnt really i mpress me the least as i stated
the onkyo i had before this hk was way more open and seemed to be louder when i wanted that? i havent bought a new amp up until this hk in many years is this a common thing in new amps
as i listened to a marantz before buying the hk and even a new onkyo i chose the hk for the phono jack and the 120 watts the newer onkyo i looked at had only 80 watts and did have the phono jack i really dont know what to as im just not fulfilled with the sound of this hk anybody have any suggestions??? thats another thing about this hk when i turn it up to around 10 db i get distortion ? that would not even be halfway? on the onkyo id push that thing i wouldnt hear any distortion until it was over 3/4 of the volume?

blackraven
12-27-2013, 07:52 PM
Its odd that the 3490 does not play loud enough. It has a beefy power supply and is high current. What gauge speaker cable are you using? It should be 16 or heavier. As far as the sound, it is a warmer sounding amp and it is a budget piece of gear.

What is your budget? You could use the HK as a preamp and purchase a separate power amp. If you are on a budget consider a Class D Audio amp, Parasound A23 or Parasound Classic. Also look on audiogon for a used amp.

Home page (http://classdaudio.com/)

I have one of these amps. They sound great, are detailed, transparent, dynamic with good air but can be a little bright with the wrong gear. They pair well with warmer sounding speakers, preamps and tube preamps.

Here are 180 pages of discussion on these amps-

$175 Class D amp--120 wpc (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=76400.0)

john03
12-28-2013, 05:46 AM
Its odd that the 3490 does not play loud enough. It has a beefy power supply and is high current. What gauge speaker cable are you using? It should be 16 or heavier. As far as the sound, it is a warmer sounding amp and it is a budget piece of gear.

What is your budget? You could use the HK as a preamp and purchase a separate power amp. If you are on a budget consider a Class D Audio amp, Parasound A23 or Parasound Classic. Also look on audiogon for a used amp.

Home page (http://classdaudio.com/)

I have one of these amps. They sound great, are detailed, transparent, dynamic with good air but can be a little bright with the wrong gear. They pair well with warmer sounding speakers, preamps and tube preamps.

Here are 180 pages of discussion on these amps-

$175 Class D amp--120 wpc (http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=76400.0)

what about jolida amps???????

StevenSurprenant
12-28-2013, 10:05 AM
Personally, I would take heed of blackraven's suggestion of a class D amp. In my opinion, they are the best for the buck. My experience is that they produce a very tight and strong bass and are above the norm in terms of clarity, detail, and soundstaging. As a matter of fact, I was blown away when I heard my first one. As blackraven said, they can sound a little bright but they do everything else very well.

As for tubes, that's a different animal altogether. I went to tubes out of curiosity and have no desire to look back. Compared to solid state in the same price range of tubes, tubes offer more clarity and much better soundstaging. With a little tube rolling you can make them sound pretty much the way you want them to. They can give you that warm tube sound or sound just like a transistor amp. If you like both, you can swap tubes out from time to time for a different sound. However, tubes are not maintenance free. You have to adjust the bias from time to time and change tubes out when they fail. Also, some tubes are not cheap these days. There is one more issue with tubes that might be of concern. Since tubes have a limited lifespan people don't normally run them day in and day out. If you're the type to have music playing all day long, a solid state or digital amp might be the best way to go.

john03
12-28-2013, 11:02 AM
Personally, I would take heed of blackraven's suggestion of a class D amp. In my opinion, they are the best for the buck. My experience is that they produce a very tight and strong bass and are above the norm in terms of clarity, detail, and soundstaging. As a matter of fact, I was blown away when I heard my first one. As blackraven said, they can sound a little bright but they do everything else very well.

As for tubes, that's a different animal altogether. I went to tubes out of curiosity and have no desire to look back. Compared to solid state in the same price range of tubes, tubes offer more clarity and much better soundstaging. With a little tube rolling you can make them sound pretty much the way you want them to. They can give you that warm tube sound or sound just like a transistor amp. If you like both, you can swap tubes out from time to time for a different sound. However, tubes are not maintenance free. You have to adjust the bias from time to time and change tubes out when they fail. Also, some tubes are not cheap these days. There is one more issue with tubes that might be of concern. Since tubes have a limited lifespan people don't normally run them day in and day out. If you're the type to have music playing all day long, a solid state or digital amp might be the best way to go.

im lookin to actually after solve this issue of this hk problem i was going to build a tube sytem up piece at a time now a question about tubes lets say a amp is rated for 40 watts whats the difference of tube power wattage wise compared to ss i hear people say there is a difference??? i know tubes sound better at least to most people???? and whats your thoughts on jolida?

StevenSurprenant
12-28-2013, 12:15 PM
I've never owned a Jolida so I can't say. As for a difference in the same power, tube versus ss, I've heard the stories, but I can't substantiate that. The only thing that makes sense to me is that if you go into clipping, tubes will soft clip where ss will produce some nasties. However, if you're running your amp close to it's total output, I would suggest that a more powerful amp is in order.

I can tell you this, compared to my digital amp, I am using the same amount of power with the tube amp, so it really doesn't seem any louder to me.

As for tubes sounding better, I think so, but that is a personal choice. There are some really decent ss amps, but these usually cost much more than a tube amp with comparable sound quality. That's just my opinion...

You night want to also consider a hybrid system, tube preamp with a ss power amp. That way, you can roll some tubes to get the sound you like.

Again, let me reiterate... I think a D class amp will give you what you want for a price that won't break the bank. They do sound really good and you will be surprised with the sound quality. My d class amp only puts out about 5 watts and until I went with tubes, it was very rewarding to listen to, of course you will want more power.

john03
12-28-2013, 02:54 PM
I was asking about the tubes simply because im going fix the bugs in my ss system

then for a different sound I want to put together a tube set up in a different room where my vinyl is when im running psb t6 speakers I just really think this hk3490 just sounds weak and funny that's all compared to onkyo I had from the 80s it just annoys me that's all I did look at the class d amp site they doo seem interesting

blackraven
12-28-2013, 06:53 PM
For a high powered tube amp on a reasonable budget, consider a Vincent Audio. It is a hybrid tube/ss amp. It has a warmer sound.

Vincent Audio - SP-331 Hybrid Power Amplifier-Audio Advisor (http://www.audioadvisor.com/Vincent-Audio-SP-331-Hybrid-Power-Amplifier/productinfo/VISP331/#.Ur-NQtJDvnk)

The Peachtree Nova 125 is a nice high powered digital amp with a tube buffer to give the best if both world or digital and tubes. It also has a high quality Sabre based DAC. The reviews are great. PSB speakers sound great with digital amps. I have a very good friend that has a pair of PSB Synchrony's with a Nuforce Model 9se digital amp and an older hybrid tube preamp. The combo is excellent. I have a pair of PSB B6's with a Class D Audio CDA 254 digital amp and a Maverick Audio tube Preamp/DAC that sound great.


Peachtree Audio - Nova 125 - Hybrid-Integrated w/DAC-Audio Advisor (http://www.audioadvisor.com/Peachtree-Audio-Nova-125-Hybrid-Integrated-w_DAC/productinfo/PTNOVA125/#.Ur-NqdJDvnk)

john03
01-07-2014, 06:50 PM
ok i just a tube amp on audiogon if i use amazon pay do they guarante not to get burned like pay pal does??????? i bought it off audiogon

filecat13
01-14-2014, 04:28 PM
Your time might be well spent trying to figure out why the 3490 sounds the way it does. I've got a lot of audio gear, and in one bedroom I have an HK 3490 paired with some older JBL L100s and a single JBL HTPS400, and it clearly rocks the house. I rarely turn it up even to 10 o'clock on the dial, and it plays loud and strong. I can clean the entire third floor of the house (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room) and hear it clearly in every room.

Are you certain you don't have an error in the way it's set up? Can you describe your connections?

john03
01-15-2014, 01:30 PM
I have a simple set up 2 speakers a cd player and a turntable I have arrow speaker cables and psb t6 speakers I thought there was something wrong with the thing took it back and got another one and its the same im not satisfied with the sound my onkyo from the late 80s early nineties blows this thing away I gave the onkyo to my cousin he got it fixed for 45 bucks lol now hes laughing lol the same speakers I just recently hooked them up to a fellow I knows carver and the carver also rocks and definitely blows this thing away and the a friend brought over his friends amp which is a older legacy coda amp also blows this thing away with my psb speakers and then another friend brought over a newer onkyo rated at 85 wpc sounds just as loud as this hk I just do not like the sound of it I may make note I really liked the sound of the coda la96 but I also liked the carver I don't get the carver gets flack lol it really does sound good