Valve amp suggestions for £500

[Lindsayt]

I've recently been asked for valve amp recommendations for £500.

I'd suggest DIY, for anyone up for that sort of thing.

For someone looking for a turnkey valve amp things get trickier.

I personally prefer good SET's and good solid state amps to push pull valve amps. Most of the 2nd hand valve amps for £500 will be push pulls.

Good SET's seem to be very rare on UK ebay. My guess is that part of the reason for that is that SET's are normally partnered with high efficiency speakers - which tend to be huge - making them more of an American thing. Big cars, big fridges, big speakers.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I would see if Steve (the Shadow) has an old project or can knock something together. He has proved to me he knows his onions.

Other than that then it is Chinese.

[antonio66]

If you see anything by Audion in that price range, snap it up.

[_D_S_J_R_]

No idea if it's any good, but don't Icon have a soft-toned cheapie for this sort of money? The DIY World Audio KEL32 seems to go for this kind of money on the used market as well...

I have to say this, with absolutely no bias (really!) but an A20/P20 for £300 will out-valve any cheap valve amp in terms of 3-D imaging and that kind of 'human' quality to good recordings with better clarity and speaker drive over a cheapo set of output transformers and, used with LS2, will run barely warm after hours of thorough use....

[George Hincapie]

Never one to miss an opportunity are you Dave?

[Copperblue]

Croft, especially his preamps. Really balanced engaging sound. Great mm phono stage as well

[_D_S_J_R_]

I love Glenn's stuff, but the current gear's still coloured in the bass.. Now painfully obvious after living with a passive preamp for a couple of years.. Not as severely coloured as a lot of EAR amps though (the flashy V6 just about redeems them IMO)

[SteveTheShadow]

I've recently been asked for valve amp recommendations for £500.

For £500 you're looking at push-pull EL84s in Ultralinear or Pentode mode. This will give around 15Wpc.
Unless more money is spent, that's about 'yer lot I'm afraid. However all is not lost, as EL84s are absolutely superb sounding valves. Leak valve amps that used EL84s were among the top sounds of the 50s and 60s.

SET is right out at this price level. The output transformers are the key to good sound from SETs and frankly at this price level, they are not going to be all that good, plus, the valves themselves are very expensive for not much power. Asking 4W of 2A3 single ended triodes to drive "real world" speakers is frankly asking too much.
Small SE amps may sound like they have more power than they have any right to be giving, but that's only because of their benign clipping behaviour. With normal speakers, these amps are clipping most of the time and dynamics will be non existent.

[Daniel Quinn]

NVA A40'S with a inner tube on top .

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Some people just want the retro Frankenstein effect of glowing bottles. I am sure there is a market for buying up duff valves that just have the heater working and putting them on the top of a flash retro box with old fashioned meters (another daft visual thing). Plug it in the mains and the valves glow and the meters wobble and the eeeediots can stare at it while listening to music on their proper hi-fi

Definitely not aimed at real valve amp enthusiasts but at the "metomewants" who seem to be the majority of owners.