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[MrSheep]

Hi there
I am looking at using a valve power amp when I upgrade my setup in a few months, but am kinda lost as there is so much potential rubbish out there.
Can anyone recommend some companies that do decent valve amps that I will actually be able to get replacement parts for?
cheers

[Carl Brinkman]

What gives you the impression that so much of whats out there is rubbish ?

I've owned tube amps from VTL, Jadis, Audio Note (UK not the Kondo gear) and Melos. All have failed at one time or another and there was no time that they couldn't be easily repaired locally by excellent service techs when I lived in California. They didn't even need schematics and were very willing to directly call the original designer if there was anything they didn't completely understand. However now that I've moved to the swamps of SC I doubt that I'd be able to get any of them fixed without shipping it off.

In general my view is that there is way LESS rubbish out there in the tube gear than there is in solid state stuff. THAT is a real quagmire for sure.

[MrSheep]

Yeah I dont mean the sound of the tube amps being rubbish, just that there are a lot of companies putting together lovely sounding tube amps and selling them on, two years later the company goes bust and you cant get replacement parts for the amps. Im looking for a relatively affordable tube amp from a very well established company. Saying tube amps being protential rubbish was a bit harsh really, the amp itself may be amazing, but if you cant get the replacement tubes then it might as well be rubbish.

[Carl Brinkman]

You're dead right about the small companies coming and going every few years. Melos was like that and just as I was falling in serious lust for the Tenor amps I learn they are belly up at the end of last year. But most tube-based companies have been around for quite a while.

I can't imagine what you could be worrying about from a spare parts viewpoint though. Except for transformers almost everything else is easily available to a competent technician. Tubes are NEVER a problem with all of the NOS specialists around today, and the guys I've used are mail-order anyway so location is irrelevent. In fact, except for the Melos, the first thing I did with my amps was to chuck the stock tubes for some tasty NOS beauties.

If you are located near some competent repair facilities you might want to investigate some of the newer tube amps coming out of China these days. Sound way over the top for the bucks. Can't speculate on reliability issues though without much of a track recore. But damm the sound is killer. If its in your price range be sure to listen to the Hurricanes. The price has gone up from $4k to $5k now they have earned some rave reviews but the sound is better than anything I've heard in the $10k range.

Be sure to also look on Audiogon. There are ALWAYS good used tube amps that are a steal for the money just because their owners want to try something else for a while.