Question for valve amp owners.

[S83 Trike]

[quotwhst e=Covenanter]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

[/quote]

What aload of complete nonsense!

Give your head a shake!

 

[Infiniteloop]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

So does that make Valve Amps somehow inferior to SS Amps?

 

[lindsayt]

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

That will be why every valve amp I've compared in comparative demos has sounded different then.

 

[Covenanter]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

So does that make Valve Amps somehow inferior to SS Amps?

Not at all! They have the great merit of simplicity and in the right place are a fine choice. What they aren't is something magic!

Chris

 

[Covenanter]

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

That will be why every valve amp I've compared in comparative demos has sounded different then.

There are a couple of reasons why that might be the case.

Valve amps will generally be Class A designs and some people can hear the difference between Class A and Class B as they are sensitive to the harmonic distortion that comes with Class B. With modern designs that should be a very minimal amount of distortion but I would not be totally surprised if some people could hear it. (Experiments at the lab at Uni 40 years ago showed that 2 out of the 5 of us could consistently hear the difference in blind tests. The Class B designs then were very simple and indeed you could see the distortion on an oscilloscope.)

The other explanation is that unless you were listening blind then you could be experiencing expectation bias.

Chris

 

[Covenanter]

[quotwhst e=Covenanter]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

What aload of complete nonsense!

Give your head a shake!

[/quote]

I don't know why you say that! Valve designs should be very simple, that is their merit. It's almost the case of the more you put in the worse the sound. Basic valve circuits are pretty much unchanged since the 1960s and if you buy a solid chassis and good quality components you will get a top class sound.

(Back in the day I built many valve amps using a Mullard circuit as my uncle made and sold DJ systems to the then emerging "disco" market. Twin Garrard TTs, two mono valve amps - one per channel and some simple efficient speakers and you could make quite a noise for very little money.)

What you tend to get with audiophile valve amplifiers is bling. A beautifully engineered chassis on a sexy wooden base maybe with everything shiny and sparkling. And it lights up when you switch it on!

I would encourage every audiophile to try building their own valve amp. There are kits available or if you are brave you can get a design and build one from scratch, the components are readily available. Then you can understand what difference you get from a high price commercial offering.

Chris

 

[Al ears]

Perhaps you should start your own thread on valve amps made simple.

 

[Infiniteloop]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

So does that make Valve Amps somehow inferior to SS Amps?

Not at all! They have the great merit of simplicity and in the right place are a fine choice. What they aren't is something magic!

Chris

But how some of them sound to some of us is definitely magic.

 

[Covenanter]

It always amuses me when people speak glowingly about valve amplifiers. I was probably a member of one of the last cohorts to undertake a "valve" course at university. They are the simplest thing in the world to design and a clear case of "less is more". Don't get me wrong, I like valve amps but they just aren't hard to design. Actually solid state amps are much harder to design, especially Class A.

Chris

Harder to get right not necessarily to design.

The power amp in question is actually a hybrid, which is even harder to design, with noise levels that would shame many solid states.

My personal opinion only you understand. The preamp is all solid state.

Not at all hard to get right. Any first year electronics student can design and build a valve amp as good as any that can be made. It's all smoke in the eyes of "audiophiles".

Chris

So does that make Valve Amps somehow inferior to SS Amps?

Not at all! They have the great merit of simplicity and in the right place are a fine choice. What they aren't is something magic!

Chris

But how some of them sound to some of us is definitely magic.

Many people like Class A amplification.

Chris