Could anyone please refer me to a marketer of a, say, 70 or 100 watt
RMS per channel, reasonably high quality and reasonably priced
vacuum-tube stereo amplifier kit?

Could you name some brands and models of the latter? Thanks!

in article ,
at wrote on 3/18/05 4:32 PM:

Could anyone please refer me to a marketer of a, say, 70 or 100 watt
RMS per channel, reasonably high quality and reasonably priced
vacuum-tube stereo amplifier kit?

Please define "reasonable" for both categories.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Could anyone please refer me to a marketer of a, say, 70 or 100 watt
RMS per channel, reasonably high quality and reasonably priced
vacuum-tube stereo amplifier kit?

70-100 Watts IMHO is considered a good portion of power for tube amps unless
you're driving an inefficient pair of speakers or have some other esoteric
needs. Why so much power ( and you'll ask yourself the same question when
you receive your electric bill)? The amount of heat generated, especially in
class A operation, will be noticeable. Not that there is anything wrong with
so much power, but many of use do with 30 -50 watts. Some as low a 3 watts.
You might know all this already, but if you didn't, it may be prudent to
take a step back for some thought. Tell us what speakers you plan do drive,
what type of music do you listen to and how loud.
Cordially,
west

wrote:
Could anyone please refer me to a marketer of a, say, 70 or 100 watt
RMS per channel, reasonably high quality and reasonably priced
vacuum-tube stereo amplifier kit?


You can get by with lower power than that. Tube amps in
general will distort much more gracefully than solid
state amps do. Solid state amps start to clip severely
but vacuum tube amps slowly go non linear. A good part
of the difference is the differing topology (types of
circuits) between the amps. 30 watts of tube power is
comparable to 100 solid state watts.

robert casey wrote:

wrote:
Could anyone please refer me to a marketer of a, say, 70 or 100 watt
RMS per channel, reasonably high quality and reasonably priced
vacuum-tube stereo amplifier kit?


You can get by with lower power than that. Tube amps in
general will distort much more gracefully than solid
state amps do. Solid state amps start to clip severely
but vacuum tube amps slowly go non linear. A good part
of the difference is the differing topology (types of
circuits) between the amps. 30 watts of tube power is
comparable to 100 solid state watts.

I am loathe to point out yet again that most tube amps don't oveload less
gracefully
than most SS amps, and that a 30 watt tube amp won't ever sound as
loud, and clean as a 100 watt SS amp if you are trying to get say
50 watts of power to speakers.

I doubt I have ever used 50 watts.

But for those with cast iron ears, perhaps they might.

In that case, you will find that since most hi-fi tube amps have some NFB,

they clip almost as abruptly as SS and the sudden increase in upper
harmonics
after clipping is about identical.
Even in a PP triode amp with no FB it is quite evident, but NFB makes the
transition
from clean sound to dirty sound very abrupt no matter what devices are
used,
and about the only thing that makes the sound go strident and tinny
without necessarilly being very obvious to the half deaf is a well made
compressor, something I have never bothered to learn how to make.

3 dB voltage overload on most amps causes very obvious sound problems.

Patrick Turner.