looking for a "tube-like" amp

[LilMik]

hello,

i like the sound of tube amps but i do not have the money to buy one and
i do not like the high voltages, that's why i don't want to build one.

well, my money is limited and my knowledge is limited.
i am looking for a solid state amp with a "valve-like" sound. my speakers a pretty efficient
with 100 db and easy to drive, they have 8 ohm.

can you suggest me a good solid state amplifier with a "tube-like" sound.

i did see all the pass stuff, and i like the soz. it looks really cool.

have fun
LilMik

[Nelson Pass]

Congratulations, your English is infinitely better than my
German.

[Richard C]

I have never heard a solid state amp that sounds like a tube amp.

Somethng using EL84's would not be expensive and IMO would have the potential to sound better than SS amps costing considerably more.

[GRollins]

The words "tube-like" are open to interpretation. Solid state gear doesn't sound like tube gear and probably never will. That said, Nelson's Aleph circuits come as close as anything that you're likely to find schematics for. Very warm. Not the so-called 'accurate' sound (far from accurate if you've ever listened to live music) that is actually due to distortion components. They're also fairly simple circuits to build--no adjustments to have to fret over.
Have fun.

Grey

[thylantyr]

Defy the laws of audiophile...

go prosound amp

or

full range class d or t.

[Fuling]

Let´s see, you live in Germany and you want cheap tube sound?
Put together something simple by parts from www.askjanfirst.de

[Magura]

Or the real simple and "safe bet" solution, Zen V1. Its got a nice warm sound to it...and you can get PCB's for cheap...ohh, and its cheap and very well documented.

Magura

[Richard C]

LilMik, maybe you should say what you mean by "valve sound".

I don't like warm sounding amps whether SS or tube and I think that it's an unfortunate misconception that tube amps typically sound warm and coloured.

Unfortunately a lot of people including some amplifier designers believe that to make SS sound like valves it's simply a case of lowering feedback, increasing second harmonic distortion and possibly even rolling-off the high freqencies a little.

This might make an amplifier sound warm but it doesn't make it sound like a good (but not necessarily expensive) valve amp which will sound cleaner, brighter, more detailed, less coloured and much more dynamic.

[Eli Duttman]

LilMik,

Consider building a hybrid amp. Use the 6GM8/ECC86 as the voltage amplifier. The 6GM8 was engineered to be used in automotive applications; it works at LOW voltages. The max. allowable anode voltage for the 6GM8 is 30 V.

Your efficient speakers don't need much power to produce satisfactory listening levels. That makes a SE Class "A" O/P stage built around a single MOSFET "practical". 8 V. RMS O/P into 8 Ohms is 8 W. That's a loud 109 dB. at 1 M. from your speakers.

[LilMik]

hello,

thank you all. i am sorry for my late answer. i always thought that
all tube-amps do have this special kind of sound. well, my experience is limited. but after reading
a bit i am not sure anymore. just look at mr. leach's paper TubeVsTrans.pfd.

maybe it's not important if it is
a tube-amp or a "sand"-amp. maybe the design is more important. i do not know. maybe it's
all about a special kind of coloration or second harmonic distortion.

what i mean when i say "tube-like" sound. i had the chance to hear two really old tube amps: a
mcintosch c20 and a marantz amp (dunnow the exakt name, sorry). i could
compare it directly with a mark levinson 332 and a schaefer and rompf asr emitter (a pretty good amp
here in germany, you can buy it for about 8000 euro, i guess). the sound of both tube amps was warm,
clear and really "musical", and pretty aggressiv in a soft, harmonic way, i can not describe it. it was
very, very good.

the levinson was not bad, it was actually pretty good. the bass was better and nirvanas
music for example was way better with the ml, but the ml simply did not have this "musicality".
the asr emitter, it's a class a amp with mosfets, was not as good as the tube-amps, but it was
really nice. it's really hard to explain how something does sound. the emitter does have the sound
of the old tube amps. not as good, but it was there.

now, what i am looking for is a little amp with at least 5 watt and the sound
of a 40 year old tube amp.

have fun
LilMik