Choosing an Amplifier

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Choosing an Amplifier

Tube (valve) or solid state amp, does it matter?

After the Speakers and the room that they are being used in, amplification is an important element of your system to decide on. All LoVetri Acoustics speakers are capable of high power management and pleasingly loud volumes in large rooms. If you enjoy listening to music at high levels it may be intuitive to purchase an amplifier with a great deal of power. Power rating of an amplifier is often misunderstood to indicate its audio quality. For the most part the hi-fi quality of an amplifier is not defined only by its power rating or brand name.

Tube or valve amplifiers are more and more frequently being manufactured today, possibly due to the audio industry’s constant need for new marketing gimmicks or their nostalgic and performance benefits in guitar tube amplifiers.

In not all cases but to generalize, tube amps have greater distortion and higher output impedance than solid state amplifiers. Many have claimed that the distortion of a tube amp is “pleasant” or more “musical” sounding. The fact is that the aim of a hi-fi amplifier design is to not have any distortion at all.

Output impedance, which is often referred to as damping factor, is often much higher in tube amplifiers. A higher output impedance infers a lower damping factor and much has been said on the effects of an amps damping factor on a speaker system. Whether the output impedance has a great affect or not has been a matter of great debate for years but it can be said with certainty that there is a change in a speaker’s ideal frequency response caused by a high output impedance in its amplifier. LoVetri Acoustics Speakers are designed to have a flat frequency response and this is best achieved using amplifiers with low output impedances.

Exceptional examples of tube based amplifiers with extremely low distortion and output impedance are available and have been tested with LoVetri Acoustics speakers. Unfortunately they usually come at a far greater cost than their better performing non-tube counterparts.

A good recommendation on buying is to spend approximately one third of your system’s total cost on a good amp. Consulting hi-fi publications or a dealer is a good idea to help make your decision.

LoVetri Acoustics Hi-fi loudspeakers, stereo high end audio, surround sound system and home cinema speakers, studio monitors, floorstanders, bookshelf, and subwoofers.