Does anyone have any experience of these amps?

"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


Surprised nobody else has jumped in here. Nervous at advancing an opinion
in this NG - I have no technical skill in this field, just an appreciation
of audio reproduction and a decent set of ear'oles. And a large dose of
cyniscism.

And I'm not normally bitchy, but it's been a bad day....

NVA. Nene Valley Audio? Nee Tresham? Had a look/listen some time in the
eighties. Acrylic boxes with not much inside. Sold by people who said "if
you can't hear how perfect it is then you just don't understand". Why do I
think of Ivor Tiefenbrun and Jehova's Witnesses?

An analogy from something I am more familiar with - an old mate, Duggie,
describing the Pobjoy radial engine as fitted to various aircraft in the
1920's or thereabouts - "it never, ever, delivered its rated power and it
caught fire on Tuesdays". Hmmm - that was meant to be a comment abot NVA,
but just remembered my Roksan Xerces, (sp?) which at least gave warning by
running backwards for a while and it may have been Wednesdays.....

From NVA's own info at the time, I recall that the amp was absolutely
perfect, unless you used the wrong speakers. Or speaker leads. Or played
bass too loud. In any of those cases it would self-immolate, voiding your
guarantee. In other words it was totally useless in the real world.

No doubt the designer is still in his garden shed explaing how the rest of
the audio world got it wrong.

Geoff MacK

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...

"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


Surprised nobody else has jumped in here. Nervous at advancing an
opinion in this NG - I have no technical skill in this field, just an
appreciation of audio reproduction and a decent set of ear'oles. And
a large dose of cyniscism.

And I'm not normally bitchy, but it's been a bad day....

NVA. Nene Valley Audio? Nee Tresham? Had a look/listen some time
in the eighties. Acrylic boxes with not much inside. Sold by people
who said "if you can't hear how perfect it is then you just don't
understand". Why do I think of Ivor Tiefenbrun and Jehova's
Witnesses?

An analogy from something I am more familiar with - an old mate,
Duggie, describing the Pobjoy radial engine as fitted to various
aircraft in the 1920's or thereabouts - "it never, ever, delivered its
rated power and it caught fire on Tuesdays". Hmmm - that was meant
to be a comment abot NVA, but just remembered my Roksan Xerces, (sp?)
which at least gave warning by running backwards for a while and it
may have been Wednesdays.....

From NVA's own info at the time, I recall that the amp was absolutely
perfect, unless you used the wrong speakers. Or speaker leads. Or
played bass too loud. In any of those cases it would self-immolate,
voiding your guarantee. In other words it was totally useless in the
real world.

No doubt the designer is still in his garden shed explaing how the
rest of the audio world got it wrong.

Geoff MacK


Geoff
You are most welcome to this group if you continue to give us
humour/cynicism like that! Made my day.

You don't know Bill Wright in the TV newsgroups do you?


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

"Woody" wrote in message
...
"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...

"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


Surprised nobody else has jumped in here. Nervous at advancing an
opinion in this NG - I have no technical skill in this field, just an
appreciation of audio reproduction and a decent set of ear'oles. And a
large dose of cyniscism.

And I'm not normally bitchy, but it's been a bad day....

NVA. Nene Valley Audio? Nee Tresham? Had a look/listen some time in
the eighties. Acrylic boxes with not much inside. Sold by people who
said "if you can't hear how perfect it is then you just don't
understand". Why do I think of Ivor Tiefenbrun and Jehova's Witnesses?

An analogy from something I am more familiar with - an old mate, Duggie,
describing the Pobjoy radial engine as fitted to various aircraft in the
1920's or thereabouts - "it never, ever, delivered its rated power and it
caught fire on Tuesdays". Hmmm - that was meant to be a comment abot
NVA, but just remembered my Roksan Xerces, (sp?) which at least gave
warning by running backwards for a while and it may have been
Wednesdays.....

From NVA's own info at the time, I recall that the amp was absolutely
perfect, unless you used the wrong speakers. Or speaker leads. Or played
bass too loud. In any of those cases it would self-immolate, voiding
your guarantee. In other words it was totally useless in the real world.

No doubt the designer is still in his garden shed explaing how the rest
of the audio world got it wrong.

Geoff MacK


Geoff
You are most welcome to this group if you continue to give us
humour/cynicism like that! Made my day.

You don't know Bill Wright in the TV newsgroups do you?


--
Woody

Thanks for the welcome, Woody, much appreciated. No, I don't know Bill
Wright - should I? The only other NG I subscribe to is
uk.rec.cars.classic. Interested to see some crossover between these
groups - good morning, Jungmeister Plowman!

Regards, Geoff MacK

In article ,
Geoff Mackenzie wrote:
Thanks for the welcome, Woody, much appreciated. No, I don't know Bill
Wright - should I? The only other NG I subscribe to is
uk.rec.cars.classic.

Bill Write is famous for his stories - usually under 'Rigger's Diary'. He
is an aerial installer par excellance. Hangs out on uk.tech.broadcasting
mainly. Well worth a read.

Interested to see some crossover between these
groups - good morning, Jungmeister Plowman!

And good morning to you.

--
*Forget the Joneses, I keep us up with the Simpsons.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Geoff Mackenzie" wrote in message
...

"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


Surprised nobody else has jumped in here. Nervous at advancing an opinion
in this NG - I have no technical skill in this field, just an appreciation
of audio reproduction and a decent set of ear'oles. And a large dose of
cyniscism.

And I'm not normally bitchy, but it's been a bad day....

NVA. Nene Valley Audio? Nee Tresham? Had a look/listen some time in
the eighties. Acrylic boxes with not much inside. Sold by people who
said "if you can't hear how perfect it is then you just don't understand".
Why do I think of Ivor Tiefenbrun and Jehova's Witnesses?

An analogy from something I am more familiar with - an old mate, Duggie,
describing the Pobjoy radial engine as fitted to various aircraft in the
1920's or thereabouts - "it never, ever, delivered its rated power and it
caught fire on Tuesdays". Hmmm - that was meant to be a comment abot
NVA, but just remembered my Roksan Xerces, (sp?) which at least gave
warning by running backwards for a while and it may have been
Wednesdays.....

From NVA's own info at the time, I recall that the amp was absolutely
perfect, unless you used the wrong speakers. Or speaker leads. Or played
bass too loud. In any of those cases it would self-immolate, voiding your
guarantee. In other words it was totally useless in the real world.

No doubt the designer is still in his garden shed explaing how the rest of
the audio world got it wrong.

Geoff MacK

Thanks Geoff that has made my day :-) Reminds me of all the stories I have
heard about Flame Linears (Phase Linears to those without a sense of
humour).

Please keep posting as your type of posts are a welcome change from the
mundane ;-)

Cheers TT

"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


About fifteen years ago, there was a shop near my house which sold NVA and
quite a lot of them.
I heard a couple the amps with different speakers and they sounded quite
good to me.
The little amp (perhaps an AP20?) could not drive the ProAcs which I was
using at the time but the bigger amp was well beyond my budget.
A work colleague of mine bought the AP20, won't part with it.

Bruce Lankford wrote:
"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


About fifteen years ago, there was a shop near my house which sold NVA and
quite a lot of them.
I heard a couple the amps with different speakers and they sounded quite
good to me.
The little amp (perhaps an AP20?) could not drive the ProAcs which I was
using at the time but the bigger amp was well beyond my budget.
A work colleague of mine bought the AP20, won't part with it.



In what way was it unable to drive the Proacs?

I have this (perceived) issue with Dynaudio speakers, and I've only ever
found two amplifiers that sound good - a huge valve amp (sold) and an
old Cambridge power amp (broke under the strain).

However, I've asked on this NG and been advised that any competently
designed amplifier of the past 20 years should sound identical. Not
unanimous, majority.

Rob

"Rob" wrote in message
...
Bruce Lankford wrote:
"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


About fifteen years ago, there was a shop near my house which sold NVA
and quite a lot of them.
I heard a couple the amps with different speakers and they sounded quite
good to me.
The little amp (perhaps an AP20?) could not drive the ProAcs which I was
using at the time but the bigger amp was well beyond my budget.
A work colleague of mine bought the AP20, won't part with it.



In what way was it unable to drive the Proacs?

I have this (perceived) issue with Dynaudio speakers, and I've only ever
found two amplifiers that sound good - a huge valve amp (sold) and an old
Cambridge power amp (broke under the strain).

However, I've asked on this NG and been advised that any competently
designed amplifier of the past 20 years should sound identical. Not
unanimous, majority.

Rob


Any competently designed amplifier "when used within its design parameters"
should (and will) sound identical. Some loudspeakers present a very severe
load, and consequently some otherwise competent amplifiers will be outside
their design parameters. I don't know of the specific instance of the
Dynaudio 'speakers or the Proacs, but these could well present a more severe
load than the amp was designed for.

S.

--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com

Serge Auckland wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
Bruce Lankford wrote:
"adie" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any experience of these amps?


About fifteen years ago, there was a shop near my house which sold
NVA and quite a lot of them.
I heard a couple the amps with different speakers and they sounded
quite good to me.
The little amp (perhaps an AP20?) could not drive the ProAcs which I
was using at the time but the bigger amp was well beyond my budget.
A work colleague of mine bought the AP20, won't part with it.



In what way was it unable to drive the Proacs?

I have this (perceived) issue with Dynaudio speakers, and I've only
ever found two amplifiers that sound good - a huge valve amp (sold)
and an old Cambridge power amp (broke under the strain).

However, I've asked on this NG and been advised that any competently
designed amplifier of the past 20 years should sound identical. Not
unanimous, majority.

Rob


Any competently designed amplifier "when used within its design
parameters" should (and will) sound identical. Some loudspeakers present
a very severe load, and consequently some otherwise competent amplifiers
will be outside their design parameters. I don't know of the specific
instance of the Dynaudio 'speakers or the Proacs, but these could well
present a more severe load than the amp was designed for.

S.


I suppose the Dynaudios (Contour 1.1s and 42s) could be a severe load -
they're rated at 4 Ohms - and are beyond what most amplifiers are happy
with.

I've recently had a hifi cull and I'm in the market for a SS amplifier.
I was looking at a Denon 1500AE (to match the DVD player) and a Musical
Fidelity A5 (discounted ATM, end of range). With the notable exception
of speakers, i've always had great difficulty evaluating components in a
shop. I often think I can detect difference, but not a sense of
'better'. It's only at home over a period of time that I find something
I like. And then it breaks ;-)

Anyways, enough of my neuroses. Could you recommend a SS amplifier that
might deal with severe loads?

Thanks, Rob