Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Rob wrote:

Anecdotally, I agree with your consideration of AV electronics. One of
the key characteristics of valve amps I've used (mainly class A PP) is
the sense of 3D soundstage. I've never been able to recreate that with
SS - the closest (but nowhere near) is through electronic 'concert
hall'/spatialiser settings on SS amps.


Sounds like your valve amps have frequency dependant phase errors between
channels. Have you actually measured this? It's quite common...


I knew I'd regret running with that analogy :-)

Yes, you could well be right - but it's something I've observed to a
greater/lesser extent on 3 valve amps now - one having recently been
serviced by one of the design/development team (I think; Chris Found)
and confirmed 'within spec'.

Interestingly, having read between the lines of CF's technical articles,
his design approach appears to have been underpinned by the notion that
good design in valve and SS yields very similar results. Some of his
designs (a valve phono amp IIRC) appear to have been motivated by an
intellectual curiosity and demand rather than any real belief that
they'd sound better than off the shelf cheapo SS. I've got a lot of time
for him - but I still think the Beard power amp I have gives better
results than SS :-)

Rob