An afternoon with valves

I dropped round to a guy today who had bought a bit of copper from me.

He runs a WAD pre into a WAD 2A3 power.
We listened to vinyl on a Michelle deck.
First was an album playing when i arrived, i didnt know the album but still got my foot tapping.
Then we had a few sides of Floyd - The Wall.
This plain bounced along with mass's of presence. The mids were delightful and a clean sweet treble. The bass was deep fast and tight.
Again after Floyd came some unknown (to me) tracks. And again this still had me listening and enjoying, i was actually listening to the music and not the kit.
All in a very enjoyable few hours.

Has it converted me to valves, will it make me take the plunge?

Well im not sure yet, my only concern is wether a valve amp would drive my Dyn's well. I hope it will as i did get taken with the sound. But i hope another day to find out for sure if this is the way ill go.

 

Penance,

A 40-50w valve amp with a decent power supply and output transformers should have no trouble driving the dynaudios. You would need to make sure you use the 4 ohm output tap, but thats not an issue.

 

Hi,

I'll 2nd what Robbo has stated. It will be worth trying at some stage.


SCIDB

 

If you can find a pair of EAR 509s secondhand they will punch a pair of Dynaudios like many trannies wouldn't have a clue how to, if I didn't have a small listening room I would have a pair of these l;ike a shot.

As is, the heat is a bit much for three months of the year even up here.

 

Thanks for the comments guys

WAD do a power amp that states 36W, would that suffice?
Reason i am still thinking WAD is down to cost
Robbo, didnt you change from SS to valve or hybrid not so long ago?

Paul, thanks for the rec. If i can find a pair at reasonable cost ill give it a pop.

More i think about it the more i think ill move that way, it really was an engaging experience

 

Penance,

I went for valves a few months ago and havent regretted it for a second. I got an Audio Research integrated and it is a superb amp. It just makes great music, with bags of drive, dynamics, detail and finesse that most SS amps can only dream about.


The trouble is, Audio Research kit is pretty expensive, so you are probably looking at £2K minimum for either s/h older pre/power of a more recent s/h integrated.

The WAD kit would probably be a good place to start from as their kits arent bad and excellent VFM.

Cheers, Robbo

 

Don't forget a amp such as the Copland CTA 402, 35 WPC would also drive Dyns no problem,has 8 or 4 ohm,excels in vocals,superb phono stage,remote control,£1600 new,if you can find one should go for around £800 odd,I heard it driving some big Spendor sp100 and sounded heavenly.

 

Thanks again Robbo, TBH i think WAD will have to be the way forward due to iminent house move. AR stuff will be out of my reach and also invlove genital removal if i spent that much

 

Hi Penance.

Im going to be selling my 50w p/channel valve power amp in about 4 weeks.

As for beefy transformers and design, it has partridge transformers and was designed by Jean Hirage. Component quality and design are first rate. It has 4 ohm taps. It sold in 1985 for 3,500. I bought it from the emporium last year for 1,200/1,300 - I forget which!

It was serviced and brought up to latest spec last year by Graham Tricker of Tron. It was re-valved at the same time.

Would sell for 900 to prevent fannying about with e-bay. Cant be arsed!.

Dont know if thats out of your budget, but I would strongly suspect it to be the best push-pull valve amp you'll get for that kind of cash.

Selling because I have high sensitivity 95db speakers that will work with a SET amp.

If interested send me a PM chap.

All the best
Chris

 

Hi Chris

Sounds great, but i do think it would be out of my range

I will check with SWMBO but i may have to disapear after

Ill let you know.

edit - what amp is it Chris?

 

Sorry mate, forgot to post.

Its a Lectron JH50. NB They were originally imported by Walrus, but have no importer now.

If you go to a translation program like babel fish...

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

and put in the french web link below and click 'translate french to english' you can read all about its latest incarnation, the JH60.

http://www.jean-maurer.com/produits/LEC-JH60/jh60.htm


Happy drooling!

Chris

 

look lovely
says for 88Db upwards,
i thought contour 1.1 were 87Db but the dynaudio site says 85Db

 

I read that about 88dB sensitivity and up aswell. I wouldn't be as confident as others here that a valve amp of 40-50W would be able to drive Dynaudios easily. It would be worth a few tests IMO.

Dyns really do relish loads of power, the more they get, the more they just lap it up. Personally I don't really think that Dyns and valves were made to go together.

Michael.

 

I have a wad 6550, and it is really lovely, loads of bass, fast, really really relaxing and easy to listen too, not harsh, but oddly you don't lose interest either.
Bit fiddly to build as hardwired, but a learning xp. superb amp for not a lot of dosh. £600 for 40 watts valve, you can either triode or pentode wire easily, as well, normally its ultralinear connected output transformers. I wouldn't say partner with dyns, not caus I have tried it, but they are not meant to be easy. Drives most tho;

 

eek, here come the doubt gremlins again (in my head that is)

I do really need to try it out before the plunge

 

Mr Data
where abouts are you sir?

 

IMO, 50W from a quality valve amp will be plenty to go loud, as long as you dont want ear-splitting levels. Yes there are easier speakers to drive than the dyns, but if you use the 4 ohm tap it shouldnt be a problem.

Of course the only way to be sure is to try it.

 

This is where my knowledge falls apart. The way i understand it is that it may not be so much power output but more so current delivery. With my electrical background this makes sense, but wireing houses doesnt realy apply to audio.
I currently have the Shearne amp, thats 60W, but rarely does it go above 11oclock position, i would rather have a lower sound level with better detail etc...
What i do want is control of those domes, whatever the volume.

Amen


Not always that easy to do tho

 

Penance,
I know that there are WAD users in Bristol (maybe including the one you sold the copper to?), I am sure that one of them would be happy to demo thier amp with your speakers... I for one would like to hear a pair of DynAudios with a good valve amp, so maybe if you ask on that forum?

 

I think you need to be careful not to associate a pleasant afternoon of reproduced music with the intrinsic qualities of parts of the pleasant system.

Paul