Who makes the highest quality tube amps?


One scale of 1-10, 10 being best designed and constructed technically, personal sound preferences aside, who are the 8s, 9s, and 10s?

VAC, ARC, Atmasphere would seem like likely candidates I can think of. Are they ?

Where does Decware rank? Rogue? How about others?

SOme technical facts to help support any claims is appreciated please.

Durability and reliability matters to me here as much as anything. I would want my tube gear to continue to work as reliably as designed years down the road as well as up front.

THanks.

Thanks.
mapman

Showing 1 response by topoxforddoc

Add in TRON, Border Patrol, LAMM and Kondo to that list. My money went on a TRON Voyager 6W OTA using an EML20B tube. Fabulous sound and unbelievable build quality. My preamp is a TRON Meteor (predecessor of the top end Syren preamp). If you want to see the build and component quality, here’s a topless pic of my TRON Meteor preamp.

http://topoxforddoc.zenfolio.com/p25034437/h32a36fef#h32a36fef

Jeff at Highwater Sound, NYC, is the US distributor for TRON and also holds Border Patrol.

Charlie