fast eddie;176870 Wrote: > I too am interested in a tube amp but I would like something cleared up > so here comes the stupid question: > > I would like a simple set up, due to a small room, of: > > SB3->tube amp->speakers > > So my question is: is the tube amp a power amp and would a budget of > £500 be unrealistic? > > Also could someone recommend somewhere in the UK (just in case it goes > faulty) that I could buy one from.
I bought a Chinese valve amp (a Ming Da) for my kitchen system from Edenlake (their website www.edenlake.com is not too impressive at the moment for some reason!). It cost about £200, and by buying from them, you have good support. Importing direct looks risky to me. I've heard good things about the affordable valve company, but never heard their products. Icon audio http://www.iconaudio.co.uk/ProductRange.htm are worth looking at too. They have a £500 amp. On the power amp question, it might be wise to get a volume control so you can play the SB3 at 100 and limit it with the amp, in case the SB3 spews out white noise at 0dB. Also, you can turn up the amp to full and say to the wife/parents, "hey, what's the problem, the SB's only on 70, look!" :) Many will tell you to be sensible with the speakers, and get a reasonable sensitivity. I had a 10W Audio Innovations amp driving some LS3/5As (about 83 dB/W, pretty well the lowest sensitivity you get) a while back (OK, a decade ago) and it sounded great, but wouldn't do parties... Or rock music, really, but solo voice and choral were beyond wonder... Finally, consider ebay. Well-made valve kit is very reliable - my EAR is almost 15 years old, and I have not heard many better amps. You can pick up 859s for £750, and it is a true audio bargain at three times that. Enjoy! Adam -- adamslim SB3 into Derek Shek d2, Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32099
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