• The effect of valve amps is subtle, not the transformation you might be led to expect. With my first one (obscure French built 60wpc power amp - bought for £600, original purchase price £5k - they depreciate like nothing else) the initial impression was that it seemed cleaner, more transparent and more detailed than its predecessor but that was because it was a leap in quality. The spacious 3D juicy thing didn’t really come about until I upgraded the rest of my kit to a quality that would resolve it.

    So yes there’s a few integrated valve amps on eBay at that budget right now but there might not be a massive improvement, although it’s worth getting something future proof for when/if you upgrade your cartridge, phono stage etc.

About

Avatar for Stevethecoffee @Stevethecoffee started