New to valves

[Chris Davies]

Hi im new to valves

Now looking at an icon audio stereo 40 or 50 or puresound A30

I live in the sticks and dont drive after an accident so am stuck for going to auditions.

What sort of advice could you ppl give regarding speaker selection for such amps ? 500 uk range or lower ?

I have a cambridge audio cd player and rega deck.

Room is about 12-14 ft square I listen to jazz blues modern but not heavy stuff.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Chris D

 

[zanash]

make certain there efficient ..ie 96db or better
if the valve amps are arround 15-20 watts

if they are more powerful then you don't need to worry so much

what are your current speakers ?

 

[bottleneck]

small room, valve amp..small and efficient

try some audionote J's

http://www.audionote.co.uk/products/speakers/an-j_01.shtml

 

[Chris Davies]

I sold my old pair of celestion speakers so am open to all options sub 500 that would suit.

Amp watts will be 25 to 35

I did look at the floor standing mission m35i 92 db but dont know if the amp would cope

Thanks for the help !

 

[bottleneck]

oh btw, audionote E's would work - but out of budget second hand or new. Older Snell speakers are worth hunting out - they are much the same as audionote E and J but cheaper.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/snell-k-ii-lo...66:2|39:1|72:1300|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

There are a pair there.

Dont be put off by 'pedestrian' looks, you're sonically getting a lot more than they look to be.

 

[Chris Davies]

Thanks for the advice i will look into those

I was wondering what you guys think of the cadance monoblocks powered by the icon audio la4 preamp ? Is that a worthwile combination ?

 

[bottleneck]

There are 'Cadence' - imported chinese amps, and also 'Cadence' (same company doing the box) which is an old name for 'DIY hifi supply kits'. The 2nd is great stuff, the former, it's ok IMO.

Opinions vary wildly here, but having heard most of them, I'm not a fan of Icon, Cadence, Ming Da, Meixing etc.

For the money, I'd MUCH rather have something built up by www.hificollective, www.diyhifisupply, or even World Audio.

The quality of what will be inside your amp will be in another league.... check out the websites and see...

 

[Chris Davies]

Following your advice i thought this looked like a good deal so bought it - I have a little dot mk3 i can use as a preamp for now

So just speakers to look at