amplifier

In my experience valve amps are generally warmer sounding so they may be what you are looking for and DEFFINATLY worth a listen.

I had a KT88 valve amp (Cayin A-88T) and although it was great for softer music, for rock, nu-metal and the like it wasn't quite up to the job IMO. I could hear the distortion I think. If I pushed up the volume it sounded LOUD even when I knew it wasn't all that loud. You may be fine with that though, I think I am very sensitive to distortion of whatever kind that was as my preference has turned out to be active studio monitors with a valve pre-amp.

Of course if you want bass from a standmount speaker maybe you should be getting yourself a pair of PMC's or I believe Medowlark make a standmount as well. I know you just got the Epos' but still?

Has anyone tried Gunniess with blackcurrent juice? Its kind of funky!

 

MF X80 for £399 - well worth a listen
Donut

 

you can get an mf x-80 for £229 at www.lintone.co.uk
not bad for a £600 amp

kane

 

I've got the 34-A AT.
If anyones worried about lack of bass you wouldn't with this amp. It doesn't do stunt bass, just what should be there. It's not as lumpy as my Naims were for a start. It's tons easier to listen to, in fact I tend to listen much quieter now, as everything sounds much realer, I don't need the volume to compensate for what isn't being reproduced. Recordings I thought were bad now sound much better. Good recordings sound much better.
For me it the difference is highlighted by the way I want to listen to music much more. It would not occur to me to listen to separation or decay etc, but just the music. A huge improvement this.
I listen to both classical and rock, and with everything the valves sounded better to me. I was listening the other day to a Prince album, and there was definitely an impressive amount of thwack (copyright WM) that I could only attribute to the valve amp, as I've never heard it before.
Where are you Ellison, anywhere near Manchester? If you are you're welcome to a listen.

 

It sounds pretty good, I might one day consider getting a valve amp especialy as I listen to a lot of vinyl stuff. I might get fed up the transistor harshness some time.

How long to valve amps take to warm up? I also assume you need a lot space to operate them in because of the heat.

 

Just a quick point... I leave my valve pre-amp on 24/7 and it doesn't seem to be wearing out yet after about 1 year! I am beginning to think valves ware out much more from power on and off, likely the expansion and contraction of the metal inside them.

I remember my dad telling me the BBC updated one of their radio transmitters a while back and found a big bit of valve gear in there which had been operating for 20 years and was still going strong!

 

Mine takes about 10-15 minutes to sound good, and then a bit longer to sound great. I turn it off partly to save the valves as conventional wisdom states, but also to save on electric.