HiFiandAudio / Affordable Valve Company

[Andy]

Has anyone on here had any experience of these companies, please?

HiFiandAudio.com
Affordablevalvecompany.com

Now that I have returned to the world of music and hi-fi kit, I'm being seduced (raped is probably a more descriptive if less polite word) by valve amplifiers.
I have a rough budget of £500-£600 quid which I'd originally intended for a pre-power or integrated (transistor) set up, but I've since been sidetracked by valves. (I'm hoping this is just a phase I'm going through...;) )

On Hifiandaudio site, I've been looking at (lusting over!) these http://www.hifiandaudio.com/ul_amplist.htm
and
On the Affordable Valve Company I've been looking at the first four amps on this page http://www.affordablevalvecompany.com/products.htm

I guess I'm asking two questions here:
1. anyone had any problems with either of these sellers
and
2. with a max budget of £650 am I better of sticking with transistors rather than going to the lower end of the valve market.
I know much will depend on my other kit, but I just cant afford to upgrade my speakers just yet, so I've made the decision to upgrade amps first, then, when my bank manager allows, upgrade the speakers.:)

lol, just noticed that in the space of a few sentences my budget has just gone up by £50. That's not good.
Anyway, any advice, recommendations or guidance would be very much appreciated. Thanks folks

[Welder]

Hello Andy :)

I acquired what to the best of my knowledge was the El34 Triode Connection Chinatown Silver.
When I got it, it was in bits and needed a new faceplate, connectors and some internal wiring. Apparently it also had the larger transformers but I never quite established which transformers they were.
I did try to get some information from The Affordable Valve Co but frankly, once they discovered I wasn’t interested in buying an amp and wasn’t the original owner/buyer of the amp, they lost interest in giving me any information.
What they are like if you buy new from them may be another story.

On the plus side, it worked.
Rather pleasant and not overly smooth high frequency reproduction.
Not bad looking really with my piano black face plate and matching controls even if I do say so myself.
On the minus side, the build quality was nothing to write home about, hardly surprising given the cost.
They claim this amp has a lovely open sound to it and doesn’t fall short in the grunt department so should be suitable for a wide range of speakers.
My Volts are not difficult speakers to drive. They do however like an amp with a high damping factor to give that extra control. This valve amp failed miserably to produce anything like the bass response the volts are capable of.
Overall I thought it a pleasant enough sounding amp but compared to my modified Exposure it sound anemic and un-involving. Granted its less than half the price of what I imagine the Exposure would cost today if still produced but I’ve heard some class D amps come a lot closer to the Exposure at a lot less than the AVCo.
I should state I’m not a valve amp enthusiast, not because I don’t think that they can sound absolutely stunning if done right but because I have yet to hear one under £2000 that was done right and that matched the performance of its equivalent solid state.

A lot is going to depend on how you like your audio and how efficient your speakers are.
Let me put it like this, I would be very surprised if your current Quad set up didn’t take the AVCo offering and throw it around the room.

[Andy]

Thanks John, that's great, lots of food for thought there.:)
It sounds like you did a good job restoring your amp (any pictures?). Being totally cack-handed with anything like DIY generally to building your own kit - I have tremendous respect for those that actually can do it, so I'm well impressed with what you've done.
This afternoon I sat and listened to a Renaissance RAP-01 (I think) pre and RA-01 power amp. Fine, fine sound, detail and stunning imaging, they sounded superb. But when I was told they were about ten grands worth (he had them for the bargain £6,500) somehow they didn't sound so good!:scratch:
I know the law of diminishing returns kicks in at a certain point, but if they had been say 2 or 3 grand, I would have expected it and thought they were great, but at ten grand....???
Anyway, back in the real world, I'm going to have to listen to some valves and transistors more in my price range - I guess only then can I decide which path I'm gonna take.
Thanks again John, much appreciated

[Ali Tait]

I haven't heard one, but you could give one of these a try. The seller posts on here-

http://www.usedhifishop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1049&zenid=bfda94cffd64df811a0a8247dc7313f5

[DSJR]

I mention this because I know it (and the maker :)), but the Croft integrated at £1K with phono stage should easily give you the best of both - the atmosphere and delicasy of decent valves, but with the drive and lack of cheapo-output-transformer low distortion of good solid state - lovely!!!!!

I'm sure Dave's amp and Guy's Puresounds are lovely too, but I don't know them. i do intend to get a listen to the Puresound, chez hifi dave, very soon :)

[Alex_UK]

Dave beat me to it - if you can live without remote control (which from your shortlist it looks like you can) the Croft integrated at a grand would be worth saving for - I have absolutely no idea where "Llaregyb" is - but if you have a Croft dealer nearby, well worth having a listen, IMO.

[Welder]

Gotta luv AoS :lol::lol:


Say you’ve got £600 to spend and you get a queue of people telling you to spend almost twice as much :eek:

Don’t listen to them Andy, they don’t have to fund it or live with it :ner:
You could probably pick one of these up second hand for well within your budget.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exposure-2010-S2-Integrated-Amplifier-Black-/290597885695?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_Amplifiers&hash=item43a8fbd6ff

I’ve heard one in my system and a couple of other peoples systems and they are cracking amps, musical, plenty of power, well built and very well reviewed if that’s important to you ;)

[Marco]

Dave beat me to it - if you can live without remote control (which from your shortlist it looks like you can) the Croft integrated at a grand would be worth saving for - I have absolutely no idea where "Llaregyb" is...

That's a point. Where is it, Andy? Obscure place names on profiles usually need backing up with more geographical detail in order to make it clear to others where you come from :)

Sounds vaguely Welsh....

Marco.

[Alex_UK]

Sounds vaguely Welsh....

Just re-checked Andy's intro post, and you're right (as usual :rolleyes: ;)) - Andy is indeed in Wales. :) Perhaps just add ", Wales" to your location, Andy, for those of us who are plebs. :)

[keiths]

Number of "l"s >= number of vowels = Wales

[alfie2902]

I'd spunk the £500-600 on a better pair of speakers first! Something to your taste that work well in your room, easy to drive if you're thinking of valves in the long run. £600 will buy a nice pair of speakers on the 2nd hand market & then at a later date find the best amp for driving them. Just MO though.

If only amps will do, perhaps a 2nd hand pre-built WAD Kel84 or Kat88 may-be?

[Andy]

heh heh I knew I'd get lots of sound (in both senses of the word lol) advice here, so thank you all very much.

I have indeed been looking at the Apache, Ali, and when I'm going to give it a listen when I visit a friend in London over the next month or so. Also been a long time admirer of Croft and heard good words about the Exposure - which hopefully I'm going to get a listen to next week some time.

As for Llaregyb:mental: well, er....confession time:-
tis indeed in Wales.....somewhere
:sheep:
It's actually the fictional seaside village in which Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas is set. Read backwards, it reads Bugger All - y is pronounced U or "uh" in Welsh, so Llaregyb is pronounced LLareggub (with the Welsh double-L full of spit of course :)).
:drugs:
I really live in Swansea (actually lived here for the last 20 years or so), which is as close to Llaregyb as I like to get, but is Dylan Thomas's home town.:cool:

[Marco]

Cool, matey. Perhaps then you could amend your location details to read as "Swansea, UK" or "Swansea, Wales"? That would be great :)

So the next thing, is it Andy or Jehode - and if it's the latter, where did the Andy come from? :scratch:

Marco.

[Andy]

Oh thanks very much ;), now I have to confess my stupidity:doh:
I put the wrong name in the wrong field. I was rushing and wanted to get on here (well, thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it, feeble though it is :().

Real Name is Andy, but my online name is Jehode Demode, pronounced Jeehodie de-modey or just Jehode for short! I'd like to change the names around, but I cant seem to find out where to do it. Just amended my location, and I can see where to change Jehode in the CP but not the Andy name (Just had another quick look and failed...Any ideas, or even a step by step idiots guide would be gratefully appreciated).
;)

[DSJR]

Hi Andy,

Can you solder?

Taking above posts into account, may I ask how far the 33/303 has been "done?" My late issue 33 was a bottleneck and since I couldn't afford to get the net-Audio replacement boards, I went the Dada route with one of their update kits (all clearly described on their site and blogspot) for less than £25. The difference in the scale of presentation was very beneficial I found. Also, I can't find reference to it now, but Richard Bryce had a reference on his site to changing C400? on the output cards from .68uF to 1uF, which takes the low filter on the output down from 35Hz (rather high) to well under 10Hz I believe. The difference for me was a total "freeing up" of the sound, the bass now "breathing" more naturally in conjunction with the supply revamp as discussed and supplied in the Dada kit. I use the Tape playback circuit as the main line input and used the sensitivity screws to adjust the gain to a level I find suits my headphone setup (I need tone control on headphones)..

As for the race-tuned 303 I bought, the supply and speaker caps are stock values so could be improved apparently, but the sound, fed either directly from source, or from the incredibly transparent (if not "charming ;)) AVI preamp, is as "spacious" or "dry" as the recording played through it, yet is always "musical" in a proper sense. I love it to bits..

What all the stuff above means, is that a speaker upgrade (as suggested above), as well as ditching those horrid old Linn speaker wires (K20 removed air and space IMO and the thicker 400/600 wire disguises rather dirty looking 79 strand type wires I remember - ugh!), together with updating the 33/303 as necessary, would lift your stereo to an altogether higher level - IMO of course :)

[Reid Malenfant]

Real Name is Andy, but my online name is Jehode Demode, pronounced Jeehodie de-modey or just Jehode for short! I'd like to change the names around, but I cant seem to find out where to do it. Just amended my location, and I can see where to change Jehode in the CP but not the Andy name (Just had another quick look and failed...Any ideas, or even a step by step idiots guide would be gratefully appreciated).
;)
Hi Andy, only Admin can change the name you created for your account ;) Perhaps if you PM an Admin & ask nicely you might get your wish :)

I know it can be done as i have seen it done previously ;)

[greenhomeelectronics]

Hi Andy as a previous poster pointed out we have an amp available for just £645 including UK delivery. I don't have a third party review available yet but one of our customers has said he is very happy to take calls or do a demo for anybody that is interested. If you want to have a chat with him or arrange a demo let me know and I will PM you the contact details.
We are hoping to have a proper review available very soon.
Dave
www.usedhifishop.co.uk

[kt66]

Don't go anywhere near avc

[spendorman]

About five years ago I bought an EL34 amp from the Affordable Valve Company. It was on special offer, only about £230. I was not expecting much, but it was delivered quickly appeared to be well made, and best of all was comparable in sound to my Radford STA25 III. I'm not saying it was as good, or better, but it was comparable.

It was bought for a friend of mine, he still has it in use and it's proven to be reliable and good sounding.

[jostber]

Don't go anywhere near avc

Would that mean these fellas?

http://www.avc-beef.org/