I'd like to try valve

[Gazjam]

SET friendly caveat...Hmnn, Tom knows whats hes talking about.
The games all about synergy, absolutely.

Its all subjective right enough, we all experience it differently.

[Ninanina]

I think if I had presented the Oto or Meishu with the Maggies they would probably have gone up in smoke...

[montesquieu]

Well I guess we are all different Tom as I found the stock Oto very good indeed which is why I owned it for so many years and to be honest I was quite reluctant to sell it

I used the Oto into Klipsch Heresys, Rega RS3's and the Living Voice Auditoriums and the LV's sounded the best with the Oto

Really just emphasising your point that speaker choice is crucial with this amp in particular, even more than it is generally.

I think if I had presented the Oto or Meishu with the Maggies they would probably have gone up in smoke...

LOL you aren't wrong there.

I remember I tried to hook up a 100w A&R Cambridge A100 to the Quad ESLs I had at the time, to see how they would sound. (Remember that 10w of PP EL84 Leak Stereo 20 is lovely with these). I heard a click. Two fuses blown. Not a note played.

Another time I had some Townshend Glastonbury floorstanders in (4ohm and very hard to drive) and initially tried to play themwith with some Audion 300b monoblocks. I swear at full volume hardly any sound was coming out. Yet the same 100w A&R made them sound really sweet.

It's a funny thing this business.

[Ninanina]

SET friendly caveat...Hmnn, Tom knows whats hes talking about.
The games all about synergy.

Its all subjective right enough!

Absolutely Gazjam

[Ninanina]

Really just emphasising your point that speaker choice is crucial with this amp in particular, even more than it is generally.

True enough Tom, speaker choice is absolutely crucial when using a SET, or any other very low output amp, is concerned

[Ninanina]

It's funny to me that I've kind of gone in the complete opposite direction... Maggies needing some oomph to get them going ... and finding that I still like what I hear after 15 years of single figure output valve amps and easy to drive speakers...

I guess it just proves there are so many different ways to 'skin the cat'

[Ninanina]

It's a funny thing this business.

Absolutely it is Tom

[Gazjam]

Yup.

[garrard]

I have been a long time user of valve amplification and still have an Art Audio Quintet power amp. Yes, valves offer a sound that is different from ss designs, but come with their own set of compromises. I would suggest that before committing to a valve design that you check out some of the newer amps that use pulse wave modulation technology including the latest Nuprime designs. I can thoroughly endorse the Nuprime designs and feel that they may offer what you are looking for in terms of SQ.

Geoff

I am a big fan of valve amps and have built quite a few myself, especially SET. More recently I have found I was perfectly happy to replace my 2A3 SET power amp with a digital amp, just as long as I kept my valve phono and line preamps. Nice combination.

[steve-z]

I’m wondering if valve amps of today are anymore reliable than they were 30years ago, back then I ran a Beard P35 power amp for about 4 years. I had to be repaired twice in the first year which wasn’t a good sign. After that I spent as much time on it with a soldering iron as I did listening to it. It had a recurring habit of valve regulator failure and corresponding failure of its valve, must have replaced all 12 of them eventually, then the mains transformer went up in smoke, literally!
Got a replacement transformer then sold it on, was glad to see the back of it, sounded lovely when it was working, had real synergy with my ESL63s.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk