I’ve always been a big fan of tube amps for the guitar. Despite all the advances in digital technology, to my ears, an amp with old school tubes always sounds more musical. Over the years, I have accumulated what I consider to be the best sounding tube amps. These include a rare Soldano X99, which was previously owned by Martin Barre of Jethro Tull, a Two Rock Jet 20 amp, a couple of Supro Comet amps, a Groove Tubes Trio, a rare Solo power amp and a ton of original Egnater MTS modules, as well as some of the more recent Synergy ones. All of these sound fantastic sonically, and in my view, nothing comes close to that sound and “feel response” when playing. However, it’s only recently that I started exploring tube pre-amps for my HIFI setup.
Valvet amplification
I came across Valvet amplification via an excellent new store “The Spinning Room” in Leeds. Paul who runs the store introduced me to some seriously superb HIFI gear I have never previously heard about. I first bought a Valvet E3 power amp which totally transformed by sound system. I then came across a Valvet P2 tube pre amp online from a seller based in Germany. This was an early Valvet, but I decided to grab this unit as any current version would be a substantial cost, even for my budget. The Valvet P2 landed and I was curious to hear how it sounded.
The sonic improvement is quite extraordinary. CDs being run from a Meridian 800 player directly into the Valvet sound like vinyl records. Vinyl records sound like the artists are actually playing live in my living room. I expected it to sound good, but I am astonished at how much more sonic detail can be revealed by adding in this tube preamp. Who could have imagined that such old school technology could create such sound improvements?
The good and the bad news from sonic upgrades…
With such sonic upgrades the good news is that you can now hear everything from the source material and the bad news is that you can now hear EVERYTHING from the source material! I’m amazed at how good and bad some albums can sound both on vinyl and on CD. The Valvet pulls out all the sonic detail. It also doesn’t matter how old some albums are, the production results are wildly different. Juniot Wells “Hoodoo Man Blues” was recorded in 1965 and sounds amazing.
Other classic 1970s albums like Aja and Weather Report’s Mysterious Traveller sound sonically fantastic. In recent times, Nick Cave’s “Carnage” and “Pushing the Sky Away” albums both sound amazing. To my ears, Kate Bush’s albums don’t sound great, and some recent recordings just sound “odd.” Often, the final mastering is too compressed, so they don’t sound great to me. Of course, it’s all personal opinion, but to my ears, a great album allows you to hear all the instruments and vocals in a balanced way. I’m delighted to say that all my material mastered by Carl Rosamond sound fantastic both on vinyl and CD.