Affordable Valve Company.

[User211]

I'm sure lots of people have been reading his ebay ads for years with some amusement. I know I have

He does have a unique selling style the like of which I have not seen elsewhere.

Bless.

[zygote23]

You can have my Icon Audio EL34 and save yourself the bother of dealing with Lim.....his listings are like a bizarre Python sketch.

[spendorman]

About 6 years ago, I bought an EL34 amp off ebay from The Affordable Amplifier Company. Special offer then, think it was around £230. It came very well packed. When unpacking, I noticed one of the EL34's had come out of its socket. An easy job to fix, just remove the valve cage and refit the valve, but I noticed a seal on the cover and a note that breaking it would invalidate the guarantee.

I contacted Lim, said that I was happy to put the valve in if he would accept that the seal had to be broken and it would not invalidate the guarantee. No, he waned the amp back. It was collected FOC, and returned FOC to me very quickly. All was OK.

The amp is made very well, sounds good too. I did a comparison with my Radford STA25 III, and there was little difference in sound quality. The amp was actually bought for a friend of mine, it's still working perfectly, feeding a pair of Tannoy 12" Monitor Golds. My friend is very pleased with it.

I must admit, I had some discussions with Lim on speakers and did not really agree with him, still, everyone's ears are different.

[realysm42]

Lol, wtf at that listing.

It all seems like a lot of hassle, tbh.

[Mr. C]

Now there's a blast from the past, Lim is still trading :stalk

If there was ever a case for a person being 'Mar-mite' then Lim is the epitome of that vegetable base spread!

[Spectral Morn]

You can have my Icon Audio EL34 and save yourself the bother of dealing with Lim.....his listings are like a bizarre Python sketch.

Now there is a cracking offer. Fantastic amp - I sold this to Steve from new when I was in the audio trade - he ended up buying the 'electric fire' as he called it, it seduced him and sold itself to him lol


Regards Neil

[zygote23]

It's been sat on the rack unplugged for a couple of years now Neil. Hell I might even hook it up for a break from the SS amp

[stupinder]

I have a Tube Amp Company 300B (PSE) amp which looks like a German company's rebadge of the AVC range.
I have been told, and you can take this with however many grains of salt you wish, that the TAC 300B was upgraded in Germany before being sold. Certainly everyone who has heard the amp has been full of praise for it.
As I understand it TAC became, or were, the same company as Vincent Audio.
AVC are still listing their 300B PSE and 300B PP amps but as far as i'm aware they are no longer able to supply them.
TAC in Germany has a great reputation by the way and they do occasionally pop up on Ebay over there!

Here's a snap of mine

[southall-1998]

You can have my Icon Audio EL34 and save yourself the bother of dealing with Lim.....his listings are like a bizarre Python sketch.

Can't afford anything at the moment mate. Did you change the tubes on it?

[Spectral Morn]

I have a Tube Amp Company 300B (PSE) amp which looks like a German company's rebadge of the AVC range.
I have been told, and you can take this with however many grains of salt you wish, that the TAC 300B was upgraded in Germany before being sold. Certainly everyone who has heard the amp has been full of praise for it.
As I understand it TAC became, or were, the same company as Vincent Audio.
AVC are still listing their 300B PSE and 300B PP amps but as far as i'm aware they are no longer able to supply them.
TAC in Germany has a great reputation by the way and they do occasionally pop up on Ebay over there!

Here's a snap of mine

Sound Of Music (now closed) were the distributors of Vincent once and TAC first in the UK. Samples were sent to where I worked at the time, the Vincent items were mostly nice for the money but the TAC amplifiers were poor - in all the staff and owners opinion - and were not stocked (this is about 5 years ago). Several others have since had ago at distributing Vincent and TAC, Ruark, a one man operation MV Audio (now gone) and I think Missing Link have also had ago too but not now I think.

I think personally I would avoid TAC, AVC and look at Ming Da, Opera, Icon Audio or the Pure Sound amplifiers, I think in general Chinese stuff is hit and miss and more miss than hit (it is getting better though) but at least those I name have good reputations for sonics, reliability and serviceability, others don't.

I think one of the biggest issues still with a lot of the Chinese items on the market is tracing the lineage of who did what, who designed, who built etc and to what - more importantly - standard. Caveat Emptor applies still I feel

Regards Neil