What amps are you using?

"I'm either the most helpful engineer on the planet or I am a complete fool?"

Graham you most definitely are not the latter! But I think you know that really

Interestingly there seem to be a number of small, quality focused manufacturers in Yorkshire. Perhaps you should all get together sometimes for mutual support, and a good moan!     

And BAK, you are absolutely right. Your post seconded without hesitation


Regards

Les

Graham,
Designing by committee! Have you gone completely insane. I work in automated manufacturing, believe me people get what they are given otherwise the costs spiral dramatically. We can't get an agreement between the different manufacturing sites within the same company, right down to the background colour of the VDU screens. Drives you mad and costs a fortune.

I was using a pre naim 72 and a 140 power amp with my rega planar 3 with rb300 arm plus graham slee gram amp 2....I also have a quad cd67 which is probably the finest cd player I have ever used...I decided to change my amps as the soundstage was a little two dimensional and not exactly detailed.....I tried lots of transistor amplifiers...no joy then decided to try a relatively cheap valve integrated ...A affordable valve company KT88 high end...I was lent this amp a few years ago and did not give it back...I ended up paying £800 for it... as it makes my linn kelidah speakers sing....The volume levels are not as hign as the naim amps ' but the separation detail soundstage and musicality are out of this world...Especially through the graham slee phono stage wich is the icing on the cake ..The compatibility of this set up is very good..With an easy going but thrilling sound especially when playing the likes of Joe cocker on album...I would recommend giving a valve amp a try out very un fatiguing and a breath of fresh air.....

The amp is Class A triode connected....The Kt88 's work well in class a mode....The speakers that I have the linn kelidahs are about 92db sensitivity but 4ohm so they should be a little difficult to run but they open up and have a sweet spot so they are ok....The best speakers for valves are usually high sensitivity 96db at 8ohm....But Triode connected valve amps with decent current delivery can run 4ohm speakers without too much trouble....With a single ended valve amp with less power there will be a thinner sound and speaker resistance will matter ie 4ohm speakers will start to bottom out and put undue loading on the amp.....This can cause the amp to overheat and could possibly do damage to it

Unless you have sensitive speakers I would stay away from the lower powered single ended designs and go for a class A triode...

If you do go down the single ended lower power (8watts or so) valve amp with sensitive speakers you should get better purity of sound but bass weight will be compromised...These are good classical music and not really suited to rock

Just try before you buy....