Are People Going More Now Towards Valve Amps?

SS to valves?

Looks like I have crawled against the stream.
I made the opposite move from an EAR set (Preamp 864 + amp 890).

I did that for a few reasons:
- match with speakers (I bought PMC OB1 and in spite they weren't a too heavy load for my amp, it seems that they worked better with more a more powerful amp)
- convenience : I was fed up interconnects, permanent tube rolling tentemption
- heat and power consumption : I lived in Toulouse (south of France), for information current temperature is between 30 and 36°C and the amp added at least 3 or 5° C inside.

Though, my current set is still full of valves but only small triodes for both my CD player (EAR Acute) and Amplifier (BAT VK300X) and............................... I still like tube rolling

 

Hi all

I tried lots of different valves and in the end decided I liked the sound of the 211 best of all. I use a pair in parallel single ended for about 50W output. You do need a decent power supply for this you have to ensure there is no possibility of shock. I use the amp for may ours each day and the 211s last many years. The heat is a problem in summer though! Cosy in winter.

Paul

 

I'm currently using a Wavelength Duetto with 300B's feeding a pair of Avantgarde Uno horns. It sounds pretty amazing to me, but it is so room and placement dependent that it's easy to miss the music while trying to get it perfect, lol.

Neil M.

 

I use a Lamm valve preamp with a transistor phono stage and I think it works very well. I get the speed, ultra low noise and image stability from the phono stage and the lush warmth from the preamp. I think mix and match can also work very well.

 

thats not strictly true, my 3.5w bottleheads surely use less power than a 400w ss amp. The answer to all this energy saving is high efficiency speakers, fullrange and a sub does it for me.

 

and what amp is it?

powerfull SE is what L300's whould love