Looking for some help to create a valve poweramp shortlist :)

[THOMO]

I would chuck the suggestion of a really good Class A SS amp in there as well. My AMS35P has all the timbre and texture of valves but with the speed of solid state. Its hard to describe the sound - it's so sweet yet not honied, fast when needed but never fatiguing. 

Whilst it's not for sale if you want to have a listen to what really good Class A SS sounds like and you can get to Sheffield you're welcome to have a listen...

Yes that is another really good sounding SS amplifier.

The Accuphase class A amps too.My brother has an A70 and that sounds superb.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

It depends on the amp. It shouldn't be a problem with a normal valve amp with a choice of 4 or 8 ohm taps. I can't speak for solid state amps, however, so I don't endorse that because I don't use solid state amps. Maybe someone else can comment. 

I seem to remember being told that a SS amp will drive a higher load than what it is expecting without complaint other than that you won't get the SPL you might otherwise get, but doing the same to a valve amp is a no-no - a valve amp will drive a lower load that what it is expecting without too much complaint. Anyone who knows better than me is welcome to correct me.

 

[pmcuk]

The four ohm taps on valve amps tend to be a bit useless really.Well they might be of some use if the typical 4 ohm speaker really was 4 ohms but most dip down to more like 3 ohm or even lower through the bass and most valve amps really struggle to drive loads that low.

The 4 ohm tap can be very useful for raising the Primary impedance, since it doubles the impedance ratio. So a 3K primary would become a 6K primary. If you don't need the maximum power out, a higher primary can give you a cleaner sound. For instance, I and others like a 300b at 5K rather than 2.5K.   

 

[rabski]

I seem to remember being told that a SS amp will drive a higher load than what it is expecting without complaint other than that you won't get the SPL you might otherwise get, but doing the same to a valve amp is a no-no - a valve amp will drive a lower load that what it is expecting without too much complaint. Anyone who knows better than me is welcome to correct me.

I hate words like 'higher' and 'lower', as they could be read more than one way.

Basically, very roughly speaking, you should never run a solid-state amplifier into a short circuit and you sould never run a valve amplifier with an output transformer into an open circuit. Either of those are quite likely to result in tears at bedtime.

 

[audio_PHIL_e]

I hate words like 'higher' and 'lower', as they could be read more than one way.

Basically, very roughly speaking, you should never run a solid-state amplifier into a short circuit and you sould never run a valve amplifier with an output transformer into an open circuit. Either of those are quite likely to result in tears at bedtime.

By higher I meant more ohms that specified, and by lower I meant less. I think that is consistent with what you said. It may be more critical in guitar amplification where the amplifier is being thrashed to within inches of its life whereas in HiFi we tend not to do that as we don't like distortion.

 

[Jazid]

I'm with Andy on this, valve amp circuit plus speaker impedance variability are sufficient that playing with the 4 ohm taps is perfectly acceptable, and safe with any 'average' speaker.

I also agree with Thomo that 4 ohm taps and 4 ohm nominal speakers often aren't an easy pairing, but many 8 ohm nominal speakers have impedances in the 3-5ohm region in (musically) high energy parts of the frequency spectrum so it makes sense to experiment with nominally 6 or 8 ohm speakers into 4 ohm taps. Well I always do anyway...

Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Ady]

Hi Gwantommo, 

I'm not far from you and have a Icon Audio 845pp integrated. If you're interested in having a listen pm me or alternatively I'll be at the Wam show in Oct. 

Cheers Ady 

 

[JamieMcC]

Having recently rotated my 2W SET amp back in my system after about four months of solid state amplification.  I find myself once again beguiled by its sonic charms and Its got me thinking about trying something a few rungs higher up the ladder.

Options I've been looking at that have been at a similar price point (6k) to the OP  that might be of interest are

feliks Arioso 300b 

Leben CS600x (can be used as a power amp)

Audio Research Reference 75 SE (used)

But also considering building 

Bottlehead BeePree2 300b preamp with Bottlehead Kaiju 300b power amp circa £3000

Or

Elekit TU-8600SVK (Lundahl OPTs) - £1500-£2000 depending on components and tubes.

 

[Gwantommo]

Hi Gwantommo, 

I'm not far from you and have a Icon Audio 845pp integrated. If you're interested in having a listen pm me or alternatively I'll be at the Wam show in Oct. 

Cheers Ady 

Thanks Ady, appreciate the offer. I’ll try and find you at the show!

 

[Gwantommo]

Thanks all for the suggestions and comments. A lot to mull over and I think I need to try out some good SS amps as well, just to see how they compare. I like the thought they they won’t melt my rack as well…..

Hoping to hear a few at the show and also do some road trips to audition a few.