"Nick Gorham" wrote in message
...
Keith G wrote:
"Nick Gorham" wrote



Attempting to produce a valve amp down to mid-fi prices, is doomed to
fail, either you can't do it, or you end up with something that just
echo's some of the assumptions that people make about what a valve amp
sounds like.



Hence kits and DIY. (I'm sure you'd be the first to agree that even the
WAD
kits **** all over similarly priced 'mid fi' SS gear like Roksan, Arcam,
Cyrus etc.) But I'm inclined to disagree that *all* valve amps produced
to
mid-fi prices (say, £500-1,500) are failures without having heard any of
them. Call it my instincts....



No I am not suggesting that at all, however I wouldn't call a transistor
amp that cost £600 mid-fi, my definition of mid-fi was that range up to
about £500.


OK, different ideas of lo/mid-fi.

Perhaps I'm confusing 'fi' and 'end' - I would consider most amps up to £500
as 'lo end', £500 -1,500 as 'mid end' and anything over that getting on
towards 'high end'. Of, course, 'end' has got bugger all to do with
'fidelity' which I think can move independantly of price.....

.. You can get a very capable SS amp for £500, I don't think
you will see much of a commercial valve amp for that.

True, but I think it needs to be remembered that a Far Eastern amp could be
compared to a Western amp costing at least twice the price based on
production costs (labour, premises, availablity of home-grown glass and
other components etc.). This is why I asked what the trannies were like on
the Ella you built - not much else matters to anyone looking to get into
valves on a budget and who isn't able/doesn't want to build.

I see an opportunity here for 'refinishers' - someone to buy Chinese amps in
bulk (it's the delivery charges that bump the prices up) and swap, say, the
OPTs (and possibly power trannies) to enhance their performance much the
same way as a certain Cambridge firm 'rebuilds' brand new Indian Enfield
motorcycles into a much better machine (rebore/hone, new pistons and
electronic ignition for example).

Fark sight quicker to do that and end up with summat that certainly looks
the part than bugger about paying silly UK prices for fancy fascias and gold
knobs......

(Now, I got the garage and nearly 2 whole rolls of solder.......??? ;-)