The ultimate valve integrated?

http://www.taelektroakustik.de/eng/ta2/x_system/v_10_-_amp.htm



New T+A V-10 reviewed in February's HiFi News. Ken Kessler says "if I were in the market for an integrated at or near the V-10's £3995 there would be nothing else on the shortlist."

I have to say, remote, microprocessor controlled, stunning looks and it even had AV bypass!

Still - £4K is waaaayyyy to rich for my blood

Michael.

 

Looks like the same valve complement as the CA50


Go on Michael, be a devil and throw caution to the wind, sell the M3 and get one with the change. you know you want to!

 

Mmm very nice.

Nothing like the CA50 Neil

Have to say the EL509 has been used before (OK maybe not in it's mkII guise) by Tim de P. to name one obvious person. But nice use of the ECC99 for driver and interesting use of torroids for Output Transformers.

 

The AV bypass is an interesting idea on a valve amp.

I cant imagine even the most die hard valve fan being bothered that rear and centre channels on movies were amplified by solid state. SS does seem the most sensible way to amplify these channels to me.

If I wanted 5.1 home cinema, its the only way I would go.


Personally, Im more than happy just running the TV through the hifi when there is a movie on.

I just cant get enthusiastic about film the way I can music. I find it very hard for example to watch a film more than once unless its epoch-making in quality... even then, there has to be a gap of at least a year between viewings.... what about u?

 

so they are not 6550's then? Looked like it from the pic, but what do I know, I am no expert!

Edit : Now having bothered to actually open up the website, I can see it is totally different

 

the companies acronym T+A has some carry-onish overtones but it does look like one hell of a piece of kit. a great marriage of valve sound and solid state convienience. i must say that i was surprised when i saw it as the only T+A kit i've seen before have been bosealike all in one boxes.
cheers


julian

 

Re the AV Bypass thing - I'm not 100% sure about that but KK says in the review that it's designed to integrate with T+A's home cinema kit which I assume means AV bypass.

I'll certainly want to listen to one if it's possible...but honestly I just couldn't justify that kind of money on a single bit of kit no matter how good it was.

Michael.

 

Sorry to sound a bit miserable (well it is still dark!), but can anyone actually remember an issue of HFN over the past two years where he hasn't called a new integratd "the deal of the century"

Krell KAV300il
Pink Triangle
Mcintosh MA6900
SIm i5
Pathos
Croft
Unicoi
Copland
Gryphon
MF

...........:SLEEP: :SLEEP:

 

I hear you there Merlin. Mr Kessler IMO exaggerates (or over exaggerates) the qualities of several of the components that he reviews. Sometimes, I am not sure whether he is driven the by the looks of the components or by their sound. Anyway, IIRC, the German mag Stereoplay liked the sound of the amp but that does not say anything as the real proof of the sound is in the personal listening which I guess is my cue to depart and ......................



Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

Sounds good. Is This unique to this amp, or is it common practice with valve kit? No doubt they'll have been a little conservative and encourage replacing the valves regular

"For example, a cold start shortens the valves' lives more than switching on after the pre-warming phase."

Again, is this unique to this amp? How long does the "pre-warming" take, and what's involved.

 

As far as I know, it is unique to this amp. It seems like a great feature, I wish I had that on my amp!

 

Giving valves a 'slow start' is always a good idea.

Having a standby switch to extend valve life when idle has always struck me as a good idea too.

Neither of these are new ideas, my old Beard P35 power amp from the early 80's had both features.

To my mind, the more expensive the valve, the more important the valve life!

Chris

 

Check out the matching Turntable!

TA TT