Senior Member
Location: Bishops Stortford
Posts: 1,250
I'm Chris.
Radford Revival STA 25 (Series 5)
Hi
I am interested in buying, and looking for any comments or reviews from owners that have or know any of the Radford Revival amps. In particular I have had triode amps (45s and 300Bs and 211s) for many years and would hate to lose some of their mid range magic. I think the Radfords use EL34 pentode output valves so any comments on those against the triodes would be good. My speakers are about 95dB efficient.
Last edited by bumpy; 03-11-2020 at 09:55.
Source
SW1X Universal Music Server UMS I Signature with Power Supply Unit PSU I Signature
SW1X USB II
SW1X DAC III Special
Audiolab 6000 CDT transport
Amps
Pre amps -- Hi fi Collective twin mono ladder stepped attenuator, with Charcroft Z-foil and silver wired. And First Watt B1 active no gain buffer.
Power amps -- Welborne 45 SET monoblocks 1.8W / Decware Taboo 6W / Elekit 300B TU-8600SVK plus further improved components 9W / ICE Power 1000W
Speakers
Highly modified Endorphin P17 open baffle speakers containing both vintage and modern alnico drivers and paper cones. All silver wired - 8" Cube Audio FC8 full range drivers and vintage 15" Altec VOTT 416 bass drivers. All sat on Townsend Audio Podium seismic isolation platforms.
BK Electronics XLS400FF Sub.
Cabling
Silver mains cables, interconnects and speaker cables by SW1X
Headphones
HRT HeadStreamer and SennHeiser HD650 headphones
Senior Member
Location: The Black Country
Posts: 6,089
I'm Alan.
Will at Radford Revival is a bit of a genius and knows Radfords better that anyone else I would surmise.
I have heard Radfords and the prototype 100 watter at Radford Revival and would recommend without hesitation.
The secret to Radfords is the output transformer design which IMO is unsurpassed.
Drunken Moderator
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 37,928
I'm Martin.
They don't sound like SETs though so may or may not be your cup of tea.
Current Lash Up:
TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.
Senior Member
Location: West Sūžsēaxe
Posts: 2,016
I'm Edward.
I have a STA25 (series 5) for about 5 years now. Used it on a range of speakers (Harbeth, PMC, Tannoys, Kudos, Radfords ...), always performed extremely well. Very grippy (bass), particularly noted for midrange richness. Solid all round. Only had a brief 2 month trial with a 300b amp (AD Audio build) driving Kudos speakers. That was some time ago now so memory fade - but I would say the 300b more 'air' but lighter weight (i.e. bass not as defined) as compared to the STA25.
Solution: have both PP and SET and switch between the two.
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
Trade: Ad Audio
Location: London
Posts: 313
I'm David.
Sound advice thereOriginally Posted by Edward
Solution: have both PP and SET and switch between the two.as the owner of an sta15 and my own build sta100 monoblocks along with PSE and SE amps, I can say the radfords probably come closest of any amps to SE magic, but they're not SE, and I do love being able to swap to SE, my current favourite being 805 valves driven by 300bs!
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