[StefanAvey]

I am close to buying a Cavalli liquid glass amp or maybe a Woo WA22 but I'm not sure of the best place to buy quality reliable tubes from in the UK or Europe.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[WraithApe]

Watford Valves
Hot Rox UK
Billington Export
 
Are you dead set on getting an amp from the States though? Icon Audio in Leicester make some great tube amps. It seems to me that US manufacturers like Woo and Schiit get too much hype on this site; there are other good amp manufacturers in Europe.

 

[StefanAvey]

My short list came from reviews in magazines like hifi plus. Then really the community views regarding amp which suit the LCD-3's. I am not against looking at UK amps but nothing really popped up.
I can't really demo my short list against a UK amp as I will have no point of reference on which to compare it so I may as well just go with expert opinion plus community opinion with my gut feeling on top.

 

[WraithApe]

Fair enough. I've heard the Chord Hugo pairs well with LCDs, but it sounds like you're after a tube amp. I'm sure the Cavalli and Woo are both great amps anyway. Another couple of tube stores I know in Europe are Musix in Switzerland and Vintage Sound in Germany. Good luck!

 

[StefanAvey]

Thanks for the info. The Hugo looks interesting but I'm already running my old Chord dac64.
The whole world of tubes is new to me and it opens up a whole new world of tweaking. I have heard that the lcd-3's may be a bit fussy when it comes to tube amps that's why the liquid glass is top of the list as it's a hybrid, plus I understand it takes a huge amount of different tubes and may be quite tollerant when it comes to people like me jamming strange things in it.
I may later graduate to more exotic tube amps with recifiers etc. I do love the look of some of those full on tube amps.

Thanks.