Valve amplifiers

[GeorgeO]

And fo course, most important-what do these cost?

George

PS-My 200th post!!!

 

[arj]

My philosophy is to use mainstream valves, which are easily available and dont cost too much. EL 34s fall into this category, KT 88s dont-a quad set will cost at least $150-170 for JJs-supposedly the best KT 88s now, against half that price for EL 34s.

Completely with you on this !. for the KT88 variety the Genalex Gold lion Reissues have been reported to be great..but again $$$$

BTW BE3 (be3amplifiers.com) amplifiers is an official distributor dealer for JJs in india so you could get in touch with them for those

 

[thevortex]

Vortex

I owned a KT 88 PP(Melody) amp and it was good-punchy, powered my 87dB speakers to very high levels very comfortably but ran hot. I dont know if it was because of the design, or whether the JJs ran naturally hot(unlikely)! Since I had too many amps, and very little space-this was a year ago, and before I joined this forum, I sold it off(for 38K, BTW).I had a huge bunch of spare valves also which came with it which also went along with it.

My philosophy is to use mainstream valves, which are easily available and dont cost too much. EL 34s fall into this category, KT 88s dont-a quad set will cost at least $150-170 for JJs-supposedly the best KT 88s now, against half that price for EL 34s.

Re EL 156-which amps use these valves? It is easier to do some research with this info. I haven't heard any amp using these-the mainstream mfrs use the more commonly used valves that I mentioned in an earlier post. Also apart from Shuguang, who else currently makes these valves?

George

There was an amp called Musical Paradise which used the EL156 tubes. In reading up on this tube, some useful information turned up. Seems like the EL156 lent themselves easily to quite a bit of power output even in SET implementations. And they were supposed to be just like the KT88 in sound signature. Just a touch more slam than the KT88, if information on the internet is to be believed.

What you say about easily available tubes makes a lot of sense. I see that most valve amp owners talk about getting tubes off eBay. Are there really no sources within India for tubes? That is really amazing - if that is true.

Viren did mention that he kept a stock of the tubes that he sells his amps with.

 

[GeorgeO]

You should read up a bit more and in the process will get an "education":lol: It is rather time consuming, I can tell you that. Check on replacement costs for valves-definitely something that you want to know about..

For a first timer, if you already have the speakers, then the type of speaker wil determine your choice of amp. If you dont have speakers, then your budget will determine your choice of bothhyeah:

The only way around that is to diy,and have some loose cash lying around! In diy, IMHO you may win some and lose some, but in the process you learn a lot.


Good luck!

George

 

[thevortex]

George - DIY is not something I am good at. So, I wont even think of going that route.

The one question I had was whether there really are sources for procuring tubes in India. Even Chennai, if I were to dream too much.

I was also curious about your statement that the speakers may influence the choice of amp. In my case I have EPOS M12.2 speakers which I wont be changing anytime soon. What valves do you think this speaker lends itself to?

 

[GeorgeO]

Voretx

What I meant by that statement was that if you had invested in a fairly expensive speaker system, you may not want to change that anytime in the near future. If that system happens to be around 87dB(this actually happened to me about 8-9 years ago), then you need an amp that can drive it comfortably, otherwise you are reducing your enjoyment.

In my case my first valve amp had to be (a 35 wpc) pp. I then invested in a much more efficient MTM speaker system, and then bought a 9wpc amp-the same amp doesnt drive my first speaker system anywhere as well as it does the second.

Of course 8-9 years ago there was no forum like this-the forum that joined in those days was the basslist-which had many knowledgeable people, based in the US. Today getting Fostex drivers and a plan is so easy and relatively not all that expensive. Or people like Lyrita are offering excellent products here in India.

OK on diy-that is not everyone's cup of tea, I understand. Getting valves in India is not a practical thing-you may get the small signal ones, but not the others-unless you buy an amp from someone like Viren who will provide support.

AKS07 (Ashok) once told me that there were a large number of high class NOS valves lying around esp in Calcutta for many years, until the Japanese found out-they swooped down and grabbed them all! He tried to get me some 300bs at one time, but by then they had all gone to Japan. Valves are easily available in the US, and with some planning you can get them across-always keep some spare ones handy if you have a valve amp.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

George

 

[GeorgeO]

How efficient are these speakers? The choice of amp will depend on that.

George

I was also curious about your statement that the speakers may influence the choice of amp. In my case I have EPOS M12.2 speakers which I wont be changing anytime soon. What valves do you think this speaker lends itself to?[/QUOTE]

 

[suri]

And fo course, most important-what do these cost?

George

PS-My 200th post!!!

that is an important milestone, and I, of course, will share with you

 

[myriad]

Hello Vortex,
I got some spare valves from thetubestore.com Audio and vacuum tubes for your amplifier.
You can try this one also Welcome to TubeDepot.com!
Regards
Vasu

 

[thevortex]

How efficient are these speakers? The choice of amp will depend on that.

George

George - incidentally these are 87 db/w efficient speakers as well. However contrary to whatever I have read, the 2A3 valve amp at Rajiv's place was able to drive it to my normal listening levels - which thankfully are not that loud. We noticed a peak of 88 db on Rajiv's instrument readout with the volume at about the 11 O' clock position if I remember right.

Hello Vortex,
I got some spare valves from thetubestore.com Audio and vacuum tubes for your amplifier.
You can try this one also Welcome to TubeDepot.com!
Regards
Vasu

Thank you Vasu. I am quite a way away from getting spare tubes - considering that I dont even have a valve amplifier now. But I did want to check up on this so that I have an avenue to check out when I do indeed get into tubes.

 

[GeorgeO]

I asked this question of Mike McCall ( of Sharock Audio) who designed the Eire speakers which use Scanspeak mids and tweeters, before I bought my Joplin amp in 2005, and here's his response:

Hi George,

While I have one very happy client running his Eires on 8 watts, I don't recommend it. By all means try it, but don't expect high output levels.

Don't be afraid to see if you like what you hear. Like I said, at least one of my clients really likes the combination.

Best regards,

Mike



So when I say in general, there may be exceptions to every rule. The fact is that one is better off following the mfrs recommendations in such matters because we here dont have the option of returning audio gear easily to get a full refund! In my case, my Eires need more juice.

George

 

[GeorgeO]

typo-

Mike's company was Shamrock Audio.

 

[aks07]

thevortex ji

Adding to the excellent views expressed by Shri GeorgeO and other honourable members, valves are an acquired taste. And just like all sinful activities its acquired pretty easily but hard to kick off. Judging from the fact that you are exploring tube rolling even before buying an amp, you seem well on that path Excellent spirit Sir !

You are lucky that Shri Rajiv is near you. He has some esoteric stuff and should help along as you hurtle towards this inevitable doom

 

[GeorgeO]

Sh. aks47( pun intended!)

You are standing on the sidelines and cheering a fellow forum member to jump of the cliff? Shame on you sir!

George



>Judging from the fact that you are exploring tube rolling even before buying an >amp, you seem well on that path Excellent spirit Sir !

 

[gobble]

thevortex ji

Adding to the excellent views expressed by Shri GeorgeO and other honourable members, valves are an acquired taste. And just like all sinful activities its acquired pretty easily but hard to kick off. Judging from the fact that you are exploring tube rolling even before buying an amp, you seem well on that path Excellent spirit Sir !

You are lucky that Shri Rajiv is near you. He has some esoteric stuff and should help along as you hurtle towards this inevitable doom

Maybe you should use your gravitational tractor to nudge this potential victim from the trajectory leading to "The Vortex" of that great black hole and prevent him from committing an astronomical blunder hyeah:

I too studied tube rolling and almost got addicted to it (partly thanks to stevieboy, the Darth Vader of planet Tube) - when I dont even own a tube amp!! What fun it sounds like!! An eternal and perpetual quest for "that sound" like a quest to seek and experience an OM resonating through the ether of outer space ....

Cheers and Shaantee

 

[thevortex]

thevortex ji

Adding to the excellent views expressed by Shri GeorgeO and other honourable members, valves are an acquired taste. And just like all sinful activities its acquired pretty easily but hard to kick off. Judging from the fact that you are exploring tube rolling even before buying an amp, you seem well on that path Excellent spirit Sir !

You are lucky that Shri Rajiv is near you. He has some esoteric stuff and should help along as you hurtle towards this inevitable doom

Well, all hifi is a vice - as far as the better half is concerned. The point about digging for info on the various tubes was that I had only heard one tube amp in my life - Rajiv's. And I was just wanting to see if there were supposed to be more musical presentations than the 2A3. What I have heard seems to indicate that the 2A3's are among the most musical in the 'tube-like' fashion. At least more than most. The nearest competitor to the 2A3 seems to be the 300B and some people prefer the 45 to the 2A3 - including Rajiv.

My one regret is that unlike with solid state amplifiers, I just cant go and have an audition of various tube amps!

 

[anm]

For people living in ncr, you can safely change "unlike with solid state" to "like with solid state"

My one regret is that unlike with solid state amplifiers, I just cant go and have an audition of various tube amps!

 

[stevieboy]

I too studied tube rolling and almost got addicted to it (partly thanks to stevieboy, the Darth Vader of planet Tube) - when I dont even own a tube amp!! What fun it sounds like!! An eternal and perpetual quest for "that sound" like a quest to seek and experience an OM resonating through the ether of outer space ....

Cheers and Shaantee

just wait till i come visit your place. i shall force you over to the dark side but its a funny dark side that glows very brightly and warmly. you can't look away

 

[aks07]

A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that makes use of vacuum tubes to increase the power and/or amplitude of a signal. They are typically (but not exclusively) used for sound amplification, either in home stereo hi-fi amplifiers or for electric guitar amps, or for radio frequency signals.

Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by solid state amplifiers during the 1960s and 1970s. Valve amplifiers are used for applications such as guitar amplifiers, satellite transponders such as DirecTV and GPS systems, audiophile stereo amplifiers, military applications (such as target acquisition and radar) and very high power radio and UHF television transmitters.

Fantastic piece of information Sir! :clapping:

I could never have found such a description in wikipedia. I am rushing there right now to update and correct the pages on value amps.

Please post more of such useful info. Would you also be throwing some lights on how the valves control the water flow and a general theory of hydraulics.

 

[alladinkachirag]

My eyes and ears have opened after reading the useful information full of definitions, facts and application...Was an eye opener..