Valve sound versus solid state...

[Marco]

Steve,

Chat to Anthony with the budget you have in mind (as long as it's viable) and I'm sure he'll come up with a design that will shock and stun you

Marco.

[Marco]

hi steve,
thats easy, my soul amplifiers, well they have two out of the three above, affordable well, thats down to the individuals acceptance of the term!
anthony,TD...

Haha, indeed!

Would you not design a scaled-down version of your Copper amps (not using a Copper chasis, though) if someone wanted, say something that would sound like the dog's danglies for around a grand or so.

You know that you have 'de technology', massa

Marco.

[sastusbulbas]

Prices and specifications guys?

Remember I am poor and have two kids and a wife







Edit,

I do miss certain valve traits, and would like to go down that route, but most valve amps cost way more than SS designs and are noisier and less capable in certain areas such as bass.

[chris@panteg]

Hi Tim,
Agreed that some sand amps sound good,it's just for me none I've heard equal what a good valve amp can do.To my ears,even a mediocre valve amp sounds better than a good sand amp.

i would beg to differ , i once tried out a monoblock pair of SET kt88's and it sounded dreadful, it was like listening to MW or SW radio or as dougie dunlop used to say a bag o' nail's .

These amp's were cottage industry type

[Ali Tait]

Do you have a need for a lot of power? Define reasonable.I'd have thought with 103 dB speakers,a watt or two would be more than enough.Only way I think to do it at a reasonable price would be to diy.

[Primalsea]

A second hand World Audio Design KEL84 or one of those little Chinese Yarland EL84 amps would be possible options. ORNEC sold the Yarlands for less than £200 but looks like the company is in the middle of a change over at the mo.

My friend bought 3 and lent them to me for a while so I could use them with my active speakers. They were very good and quiet. The KEL84 is very quiet and a very good amp.

Also dare I say a T-Amp will work well with high sensitivity speakers. They became very popular and then it all died away. They are very good though, I put 3 into a single box for a friend so he could tri amp his Epos ES22's.Not valve I know.

[sastusbulbas]

Do you have a need for a lot of power? Define reasonable.I'd have thought with 103 dB speakers,a watt or two would be more than enough.Only way I think to do it at a reasonable price would be to diy.

The speakers are at the moment used in a room roughly 80ft long by 80ft wide, 150w solid state seems to have problems, though I feel the amp power supply is hindering things, I also have a small 40 watter? which suffers at volume.

At home I have 100 watt Classe power amps, which do well, and have serious toroids which I feel makes a difference in the bass, for example my Technics is silent but 100w per channel, but again bass seems lacking in comparison to the likes of my Krell and Classe. I have contemplated selling the Classe power amps, and trying to get a second hand McIntosh 275 power amp or similar, but have also been thinking of a second Classe for bridging.

My Kef R107 do not get on with valve amps, particularly if I have the LF extension cut of below 20hz, I seem to be able to get usable extension down to 15hz, 10hz being a little subdued, but to sustain any usable output at these extremes I find I need a decent amp, only the bigger Krells and such seem comfortable there, with most others with plain watts without current proving detrimental. And I seem sensitive to any amplifier noise, such as hiss or hum.

I like drums percussion and such, low frequency stuff that stops and starts on a dime, much of it out of phase. I would happily run an active PMC/Bryston BB5 system at home if I had the room and money.

As an example I find my Krell which is giving me around 600w into 4 ohm, with plenty of current, is just about right for teh main system with the Kef, the pre is a KRC 3 which gives lower output than my previous Audio Research valve pre's though, and I can put my volume all the way round for a short period, its quite clean and does not sound as loud as it actually is?

[Marco]

i would beg to differ , i once tried out a monoblock pair of SET kt88's and it sounded dreadful, it was like listening to MW or SW radio or as dougie dunlop used to say a bag o' nail's .

These amp's were cottage industry type

Hi Chris,

Can you be more specific please? We like the naming of names in circumstances like this

Cheers!

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Well if that's the kind of power you need,buying something commercial would be hideously expensive.You could diy or buy this-

http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/v...028&highlight=

[chris@panteg]

Sorry Marco they were i think a diy job by an enthusiast they were not that well made
i don't have a name for them' but my point is that a poor amp be it valve or SS is a poor amp , at the same time i tried a big and beefy EL84 PP amp giving something like a 100 watts again i think it was DIY or cottage industry job but it was fantastic driving a pair of
acoustic energy AE1's in rosewood which i had at the time ,alas the amp was not for sale but it was fun.