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Tube amp recommendation

My current amp is dying and therefore I am in the market for a new amp. I got my current amp back in my university daze (solid state, over 10 years old and cheap). Perhaps I should have upgraded years ago, but it served me well and I was happy enough with it (and spent the money on records instead).

I have always been impressed by the sound that tube amps generate and hence believe that my current amp is giving me the push to go finally into the tube world. I have read various items on this website (and a few others) and have a bit of confusion (and hence some questions).

Now pieces of information about me...
1) I like to listen to large assortment of music (old skool reggae, bad electronic music, the occasional rock record, various jazz items, sometimes even hiphop). Often I listen to stuff in what seems like an random order.
2) I am rather lazy on my days off (when I listen to music most of the time).

With these two points I mean I don't really want to change a set of tubes because my music selection is a sometimes bit schizophrenic. I don't want to manually adjust bias settings every Saturday morning (occasionally fair enough).

Therefore, can anyone recommend any tube amps that are in the entry - mid level for me?
dennyc

Showing 1 response by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
Ralph,

Some irony in your "If an amp is good..." quotation.I once owned an S-30 (very early production) that was terrific with Merlin VSMs...so long as there was no deep bass content. With my Verity P/E, the amp sounded very good ONLY on a limited variety of program material.

While your point is taken, the fundamentally different power requirements between -for example- acapella voical music and the synthesized deep bass in some dance music may make an amp (speaker combo) that's great with the former unsuitable for the latter. IME, there are many amp/speaker combos that have proven much better suited to small scale music.

In this sense, at least, I'd say your comment is an overstatement.

Marty
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