Valve intergrated - bargain?

Tut, Tut letting your heart rule your head, and no one has mentioned DBT?, COME ON you kept banging on about it, get some BLUE LED's in there

 

clearly you missed the blue led on the front of the amp

 

It needs at least 2, else it's Jank mind you I've only heard 3 valve amps worth having, all of which seem to be rather expensive
I mean even the Delphini has a Blue Led

1. Manley Steelhead
2. Soul 30 watts
3. B/P 20

These are proper amps, and have no akin to the soperific treacle like stuff, that is pedistalled by over 45's (Rant over)

 

another reason to get rid of mine...

 

Hey Titian, would you like a butler or a chauffer or a handyman perhaps, good pay and accomodation to be included of course

 

Mart

with a good chineese remunaration? Uhmmm maybe...
No chauffeur, you know I don't drive much, I'm most of the time in my music room anyway. Ah, maybe someone who could select me the Cds / LPs and put them on. Is that interesting?
A gardener perhaps...
Accomodation: the music room is ok?

 

Good grief, Tone. I think we're actually starting to agree on something.

I haven't heard the Manley but I would agree on 2 and 3. At the moment, I'm in love with the B/P 20. It is just so-o-o clear and neutral, with imaging that you could hang your coat on. Times well too.

I would add the Steinharts to the list and the Art Audio stuff is certainly worthy of a longer audition. I'm looking forward to trying the Sophia Electric kit. I do like valve amps to be compact.

There are also some very good sounding amps at the lower end of the market. My Chinese Audcom AP-110 preamp, supplied modified in the US, cost me less than £400, delivered. I'd stack it up against many a much more expensive preamplifier. It's better than my passive and that's not at all bad.

I believe that the Chinese do make extremely good amplifiers at very low prices. However, they can often benefit from judicious tweaking by someone with more Western high-end sensibilities.

 

Hi, Muffinman,

The amp seems to be quite good valve for money. The Mei-xing Ming Da seem to be a common amp. There are a few people around the world selling it. This amp is available with either 6L6 or EL34 valves. It is available with better components. It seems you just specify what you want & they will build it.

Icon sell the EL34 version for £899.95, Cattylink are doing it for under US$500.

Having heard the Icon version, I can say it should be good for the money. It's not the be all & end all in valve amps and you can do alot better. But to do this will cost you more.

A lot of goods are coming out of China & are built to a high standard. Manufacturers in China are willing to supply many people. You are starting to see importers trying clamp down, but if you buy from Hong Kong or China you will save yourself a packet. There will be a bigger element of risk buying from abroad.

Having said that I have bought things from Hong Kong which have arrived quicker than buying them in the UK!

If you are in luck, you could pick up a 2nd hand valve amp that could be better or beat it with a kit.

A cheap valve amp can offer aspects of sound quality that a lot of solid states amps fail to offer. Whether they are right for you, I can't say but if you can give one a try.

SCIDB

 

I have had an icon in the past, sounds fine, better than most transistors, bit on the bright side for me, someone else had one, too, oh yeah, the guy with the krell ksa50, revin kevin or something, he thought it was bright, too.

But as for build quality I haven't seen better ever.

Makes you wonder what they are churning them out for, if cattylink can do them so cheap.

Then how much Icon are making.

But if you want a good valve amp, you won't get much cheaper or better built.

 

The imaging I was suggest is due in no small terms down to the two totally sepearte psu's one for each channel.
Every time I've heard exceptional imaging, Its been with an amp thats had 2 psu's seperated.
It certainly sits better with the nosuch4's than others I've heard.

 

Hi Muffinman,

The Icon amp, along with a number of other valve amps, appear in the new HiFI Choice (June issue) in the group test. It was the cheapest (£900) on the test & came near bottom for sound quality. But it was up against

Audionote Oto SE £1599
Audio Research Vi55 £2895
BAT VK-300K £5350
EAR 864 / 534 £4156
Graaf Venticinque £2350
Graves Audio Merlin £1250
Quad QC-24/II-40 £4007

For the record, the Audionote & the Audio Research got best buys with the Quad getting Editors Choice.

The Conculsion for the Icon was "Competitively priced and good looking; could have more precision, but a good all-round performer."

SCIDB

 

Yes I had an Icon EL34 integrated amp,sweet and detailed

I indeed found it a little bright ,but for the cash great value too
My wife loved the look of it
can be found s/h around £400 ,there in fact is one in Ebay now @£450

 

Re Valve amps

The only Valve amp I,ve heard with real balls are the Thor pre & 30w monobloc's anybody else listened to these?

 

Hi,

I don't thing I know these, my more details please?

SCIDB

 

Hi Ya-Boo,

Got your message, tried to reply but your in box seems to be full.


Here is a link to the Thor amps.

http://www.thoraudio.com/productAMP.html

Are these the ones?

regards

SCIDB

 

Yep thats them, TA2000pre and the TPA30w mono's have you heard them?

 

Hi Ya-boo,

Nice looking stuff. No I haven't heard them. Looking at site, I get the impression that most of the cost goes on the fancy cases.

These seem to available from Progressive audio I would bet that they would cost over £20000 for the combo over here.

I have not seen enough, from the web site, to say that these are worth the money but they seem to get good reviews.

I do get the feeling that you could beat it (sound wise) for less money but it does very good.


SCIDB

 

Yes I,m told they are nearer £25K over here...
certainly the most impresive system I,ve ever had the pleasure to listen too,they were combined with the Proac D80 or D100 & Tri-vista CDP
I,ll be honest re valves I,ve only heard the cheaper end up to about £1500....new, mainly mainstream stuff

I,m going to be demoing some valve and SS over the next few weeks to match with the Merlins, could you give me a few idea's as to what valve amps to put on my short list.....

Pathos are the first stop ...hopefully on Sat

Jardis monobloc's / your thoughts?

 

I havent heard the Jardis amplifiers, so I for one cant help with that one.

How sensitive are the Merlins, and how much driving do you find they need?... oh yeah, and whats the budget?

 

Hi,

The Merlins are 89 db/w/m with a minimum impdence of 6.5 Ohms. This points towards valve compatibility.

I don't know how much you want to spend but there are better amps than say the Icon.

I have read a number of reviews with the speakers with valve amps.

http://www.merlinmusic.com/reviews.htm

As for the jadis, I have heard them in the past, sounding ok. By all means have a good listen. They do a wide range. have a listen to the Jadis 300B mono if you can.

Other amps I would look at include

Audio research Vi55 £2985. This would be a good starter from the Audio research range. from here you could look the pre & powers in the Audio Research range such as Vs55 & Vs110 power amps with matching pres.

Look at the EAR range. Try the EAR 864 pre & EAR 890 or EAR 861 powers. Also if can find them the EAR 509.

Rogue Audio M-150 monoblocks have produced some very sound when I heard them at a recent hifi show.

Steinhart audio produce some interesting stuff.

My chioce would be to have a listen to some Border Patrol items. They do both single ended & push pull designs. I would look at the P20 as a good marker in the range. They also do mono block versions of the amps. I use the 9 watts single ended version & Steve M (7th Veil speakers) has been using & enjoying the P20 recently.

These are some new options but there are many options 2nd hand.

If you are looking to spend up to £25000 on a amp, I would look at getting one custom built.

http://www.jadis-electronics.com/pages_eng/produits/menus/index_produits.htm

http://212.135.212.43:8000/asweb/index.html

http://www.audioresearch.com/

http://www.rogueaudio.com/

http://www.ear-yoshino.com/

http://www.borderpatrol.co.uk/


SCIDB