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Thread: Interest check: Budget valve amplifier

  1. #1
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: South West of England

    Posts: 263
    I'm Will.

    Smile Interest check: Budget valve amplifier

    We are thinking about producing a budget amplifier in the £1000-£1500 range, I believe we can produce an amplifier of excellent performance in this price bracket. What features and specifications would people appreciate in such an amplifier? What is sorely needed in this category? We are very open to suggestions at this point and mainly just thinking out loud.
    Radford Revival
    www.radfordrevival.co.uk

  2. #2
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Charente, France

    Posts: 3,531
    I'm Nodrog.

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    A budget amplifier would be in the £200 to £400 range

    For £1500, I'd expect platinum plated valves at least and some really nice dials an' stuff.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Mar 2012

    Location: Gloucestershire

    Posts: 3,377
    I'm Paul.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gordon Steadman View Post
    A budget amplifier would be in the £200 to £400 range

    For £1500, I'd expect platinum plated valves at least and some really nice dials an' stuff.
    You're joking, right? A valve amplifier of any merit at all for £200-£400? I'd say that Will's being modest, and perhaps "budget" is the wrong description. Perhaps a "high quality no frills hand built valve amp using quality transformers" might be nearer the mark. £1000 these days for a decent valve amp is really very good value indeed. You could probably get a decent hand built SS amp for £400, but a valve amp? no way.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Charente, France

    Posts: 3,531
    I'm Nodrog.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reffc View Post
    You're joking, right? A valve amplifier of any merit at all for £200-£400? I'd say that Will's being modest, and perhaps "budget" is the wrong description. Perhaps a "high quality no frills hand built valve amp using quality transformers" might be nearer the mark. £1000 these days for a decent valve amp is really very good value indeed. You could probably get a decent hand built SS amp for £400, but a valve amp? no way.
    Well, maybe just slightly tongue in cheek

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2012

    Location: Gloucestershire

    Posts: 3,377
    I'm Paul.

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  6. #6
    Join Date: Sep 2010

    Location: West Midlands, UK

    Posts: 646
    I'm Lee.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Radford Revival View Post
    We are thinking about producing a budget amplifier in the £1000-£1500 range, I believe we can produce an amplifier of excellent performance in this price bracket. What features and specifications would people appreciate in such an amplifier? What is sorely needed in this category? We are very open to suggestions at this point and mainly just thinking out loud.
    Well Im not an amp designer and have no idea as to how much these things cost to build one but a few suggestions from me would be

    Remote Control
    4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker inputs
    Facility to bypass the preamp
    A choice of finish
    More than one input

    As an optional upgrade you could always throw in a MM phono stage

    Hope this helps

    Lee
    Vinyl rig 1 - NAS Spacedeck / FR64s / Lab 12 Melto / Denon SUT / Ortofon GM SPU. Vinyl rig 2 Mono Set Up - Lenco GL75 c/w Jelco 750D / AT33 Mono / EAR 834P Modded. Amplifiers - Audio Note Empress Silver / Hattor Passive Pre. Digital - Fanless Mini PC / Lampizator TRP / Linear PSU / Hummingboard Network audio adaptor. Speakers - Horns.pl Mummy's. Cables are Audio Note / Albedo / Furutech Speaker wire. Power conditioner is a Gigawatt PC2 EVO

  7. #7
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: South West of England

    Posts: 263
    I'm Will.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Henley View Post
    Well Im not an amp designer and have no idea as to how much these things cost to build one but a few suggestions from me would be

    Remote Control
    4, 8 and 16 ohm speaker inputs
    Facility to bypass the preamp
    A choice of finish
    More than one input

    As an optional upgrade you could always throw in a MM phono stage

    Hope this helps

    Lee
    Hi Lee, thank you for your suggestions. These are all reasonable and doable, and mirror what others have said to me. It seems that what people want in this price range is a no-nonsense integrated solution. It should be fairly straightforward to engineer the chassis so that an alternative front and back plates could be made to mask off unused mounting holes for those who want a pure power amp solution, which would not add any cost to the development.
    Radford Revival
    www.radfordrevival.co.uk

  8. #8
    Join Date: Jul 2011

    Location: Northamptonshire

    Posts: 1,914
    I'm Peter.

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    How about a 'mini-Radford', based on the EL84, but styled like the STA-15 etc?
    Could be a lovely little thing ... Kessler would go nuts for it

  9. #9
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: The Black Country

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    I'm Alan.

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    Hi Will, I think the 'budget' description would sit better at £1000. To a lot of folks that is still a sizeable chunk of money for an audio device.

    If you could include top quality iron at that price with say EL84's in ultralinear then it could be a giant killer.

    I'm at present designing what I hope will be a 'giant killer' preamp with MC/MM and remote but realise that a £1000 target is a tough ask.

    Good luck with the project

    Alan
    I love Hendrix for so many reasons. He was so much more than just a blues guitarist - he played damn well any kind of guitar he wanted. In fact I'm not sure if he even played the guitar - he played music. - Stevie Ray Vaughan

  10. #10
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

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    I'm Grant.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Firebottle View Post
    Hi Will, I think the 'budget' description would sit better at £1000. To a lot of folks that is still a sizeable chunk of money for an audio device.

    If you could include top quality iron at that price with say EL84's in ultralinear then it could be a giant killer.

    I'm at present designing what I hope will be a 'giant killer' preamp with MC/MM and remote but realise that a £1000 target is a tough ask.

    Good luck with the project

    Alan
    you could do a non phono version that would be affordable for folks that already have a giant killer phono stage
    Regards,
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