Valve sound versus solid state...

**Marco** · 12-02-2009, 13:38

Indeed, Anthony.

You're definitely right about integrated amplifiers; these are largely neglected by the supposed cognoscenti in their rush to obtain the latest and greatest pre/power combos, and sometimes dealers chasing the (often) larger profit margins of the latter can also influence things.

A high quality, properly designed, integrated amplifier (valve or ss) has the potential to outperform some highly regarded pre/power amp combinations due to the reasons you've mentioned. I don't think some people realise just how much of a detrimental effect longer signal paths can have on the sound, poor quality cables linking the different boxes together, and just general 'over-complication' in some designs.

Use the highest quality parts possible, implement them correctly, and K.I.S.S (keep it simple, stupid) is the best policy in hi-fi design!

Regarding active and passive preamps, I have something interesting for you to listen to when you come up

Marco.

**anthonyTD** · 12-02-2009, 14:55

look forward to that

anthony,TD...

**Mr. C** · 12-02-2009, 15:26

On this very subject, have any of the valve boys heard the new Burning amps?
Most acceptable

**Haselsh1** · 12-02-2009, 15:44

Mmmm... yeah, for what it's worth... my perfect amplifier would be valve. It would be a push pull 300B with no feedback and around 30 Watts per channel. The drivers would be 6SN7GT's. Now that, I'd love. I used to have a WAD 300B PP amplifier around 1998 and that amp was the finest sounding amp I had ever heard up to that time. Of course there's no chance of ever getting another. There is however a very close companion... Icon Audio have a 300B PP amplifier that has a tiny bit of feedback in circuit. Why haven't I bought one...??? The bloody thing is around 1700 pounds and therefore around twice what my pocket will sustain these days. I am therefore going to have to make do with a Naim Nait 5i when I have saved up the pennies. There is no way that is going to come anywhere near my dream 300B but, as with most things, it's a compromsie.

**promachos** · 12-02-2009, 15:53

Hi-I'm new here !

I have several valve amps, PP & SE and they all have their merits.

I have yet to find a solid state amp that i could live with,but it might exist.

Once you find a good,efficient speaker then low power SE valves are all you need. 300b is my fave (at the moment !)

**Togil** · 12-02-2009, 16:55

Originally Posted by Mr. C

On this very subject, have any of the valve boys heard the new Burning amps?
Most acceptable

Do you mean Berning ?

**DSJR** · 12-02-2009, 18:32

I own the perfect amps for my needs

I inherited them, so they cost me nothing (well, the bottom two didn't), they were made for pro as well as domestic use so are honest sounding and bomb proof. They run cool and have no "attitude" at all.

Boring? Possibly, but I love the way they just get on with the job of feeding some lovely music and speech into the Spendors, never obviously getting in the way...

**anthonyTD** · 12-02-2009, 20:30

hi all,
seems there is a healthy following from users of both technologies sharing their views on this thread, which is great as the whole reason for starting this thread was not to promote the virtues of one technology over the other, but to get opinions from users of both, and for all to share and contribute their views on why one technology works for them. i have already given some positive pointers and atributes as to why my own prefrence is valves, but as we all know both technologies have negative and positive atributes, so lets hear more from all who have experienced the diffrences and what finaly swayed them to choose one technology over the other in their paticular system...

anthony,TD...

**aquapiranha** · 12-02-2009, 20:35

I have used both in the past, and have changed from one to the other occasionally. both have their strengths. Blanket statements like "valves are just better" for example show a bit of ignorance IMO, each have their strength and weaknesses. YMMV

**promachos** · 12-02-2009, 21:16

Originally Posted by aquapiranha

Blanket statements like "valves are just better" for example show a bit of ignorance IMO, each have their strength and weaknesses. YMMV

Well, I must be ignorant !

Valves ARE better !

Not all valves are created equal though.

When i hear a transistor (or class D/T ) amp that I could live with I would revise my opinion.

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