Whats the deal with these antique sound labs av-8s

I bought a set of these and ran them with all MIT cables, and a McIntosh c41 preamp through B&W 604s3's and they sounded incredible! I disconnected my two McIntosh MC162's running mono and ran these instead "WOW" Mine have the auric caps and some 6bm8 chinese tubes that Kevin Deal recommened. I was amazed at what I got for the money, compared to the Mac gear. The Mac gear is great but I'm gonna try this for a while. Keith

re: Sadly, there are longer in production . . .

I spoke with Divergent and they had made another run of them
due to demand. I bought four (4) directly from them and they shipped them right out. They did indicate that they did not plan to make another run after this one.

http://www.divertech.com/antiquesl.html

My only beef with them is the 6BM8. If you want to "roll" tubes some, your choices are much leaner than el84/el34/kt66/6l6/kt88 and many more.

Good memory MW...lol, no, they are far and few between..and I think everyone who has them are holding on to them....I smell a "classic" here...

Hey Ben,

TIC here again. I had a pair of the ASL Wave 8s. They didn't really do it for me. That said, for $200 or less used, I would still try a pair if you had speakers that are about 92db eff. or more. Heck, for $200 you can try them and resell them for about the same. So, you loss a couple of bucks on shipping. That's a fair deal.

I have the Bottlehead Paramours now and they are in a WAY different league. Of course, they are more than twice as much money, but still a bargain at full retail price. You do have to build them though. Fairly straight forward kit, but Oh So Nice.

So, did you decide on speakers yet? I saw Dave Dutill of Parker Audio today. He is currently sold out of Parker 95s, but can have some more built soon. He also has a couple of different hi-Eff. models to choose from.

BTW, did you get my e-mail?

Enjoy,

TIC

I have seven in a 7.1 HT system with Soliloquy speakers. They sound great.

Tunes - I can see why you had such trouble spitting that out, it's bad news! I heard somewhere that the Wave 8 was produced as a loss-leader to get people interested in their brand. From their increased profile (or is it my increased awareness of them?), perhaps that was successful. I know they've made quite a splash recently with the over-the-top Hurricaine monos.

I believe we've also met on a Wave 8 thread before... yup, just checked. Did you pick up a second pair in the end?

Sadly,they are no longer in production, not cost effective for ASL...but really nice little amps..

try that again...lol, they are NO longer in production...

Sadly, there are longer in production, not cost effective for ASL...but really nice little amps..

They DO sound fantastic, and they're a ludicrous value for the money. I have two pairs of them, using them fronts + center (one unused) in a second system. I replaced the stock tubes with NOS Sylvanias from '74, and they sound even better. They provide 8w of power per monoblock, and use 6BM8 or ECL82 tubes (same tube, just N. American vs. European designations)

You would have to use speakers with sensitivity of 89db or more at 8ohm, and no nasty dips in their impedance curve. I'm using them with Acoustic Energy Aegis One and Aegis Center speakers which are 90db, I believe. They can go fairly loud with high efficiency speakers. Room-filling volume, but not room-shaking. If you paired them with horns, you could probably play them very, very loud.

As far as preamps go, I have only had them hooked up to HT processors (currently B&K Ref. 30) - and if they sound great through those, then they would sound even better through a nice stereo preamp. A simple, clean SS preamp - there are so many out there to choose from - would probably help give these little amps a little more punch as well.

If $200 is within your fun budget, you've got some efficient speakers to try them with, and you're not expecting Bryston-like power, then these are super fun and great sounding amps. If you were to buy some, there is a slightly more expensive version with the detachable IEC power cord and tube cage, it's only a few bucks more and you'll probaly enjoy the added versatility (and re-sale value.)

I keep reminding myself that this pair of amps costs less than most low to mid-price pairs of interconnects out there.

Still, with low-power tubes, you have to have efficient speakers, and that does really limit your choices.