On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 17:28:55 +0000, Will Reeve wrote:

Not the easiest speaker to drive (they need a bit of power) but I fancy
giving valves a try. Anyone have a recommendations where to start. The
system is 'budget' and well chosen, with a DPA Little Bit 3 DAC as a main
source and currently running a Cambridge Audio A1MkIII SE transistor amp.


Well, your current amp is, what, 30W per channel? Are you happy with that
sort of power?

Unless you want to try valves just for the fun of it then I would
recommend sticking with ss if your speakers are a difficult load. To get
something of comparable power for a reasonable price you are going to be
looking at a p-p design using something like 6L6 or EL34 valves (as
tetrode or pentode connection - forget triode connection here). Don't
forget that the bulk of your cash has to go on output transformers. Don't
get cheap iron. Pay attention to the power supply design too, it is just
as important as the output stage.

If you are just curious of course you could try something like
single-ended 6L6s with a load of about 4k or 5k. They sound nice wired as
triodes (but only about 1.1W output), and if you keep the HT down to 270V
it makes it easy to reconfigure them as tetrodes to get more output (about
6.5W). The low HT also means that you don't need to worry about where you
get them from as even the cheap russian versions can handle this ok. There
are better output valves but the 6L6 is cheap, reliable and easy to get.
It is also pretty efficient so the cost of your power supply can be quite
reasonable.

You never know - you may even get to like this stuff & join the ranks of
those of us who are always on the look out for very efficient speakers!

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info