lend me your opinions

[caveman]

hi, just joined your forum, i'm considering putting the money down for a valve amp for a PA system pushing about 200 to 250w on each channel. does anybody have any personal preference for avoiding high end distortion, as it will primarily be a dance music soundystem, and I don't want the punters going deaf. Too deaf anyway . Any advice would be appreciated fully, ta
will

[Enzo]

CLub patrons, and in particular dancers, are not sitting in the sweet spot between speakers critically listening for the subtle nuances of soundstaging and all the other audiophile stuff.

Two groups of people like tubes - audiopholes and guitarists. The audiophiles have all sorts of real and imagined sound qualities they want from their tubes, but such things would be lost in a dance club. GUitarusts like tubes for what they ADD to the sound, but we don't usually want our PA susyems to add anything, we prefer them to accurately reproduce what they are sent.

In short, why do you want a tube PA system? A sturdy reliable solid state power amp at any power level you want can be easily found and very reasonable price. 200 watts per channel is a small one, and would weigh a WHOLE lot less than a tube one.

[caveman]

thanks, i'll keep this in mind. the reason i was looking at a valve amp is my amateur studio here. i have heard people talking about interesting response from valve systems and am interested in seeing what can be done by experimenting with low frequencies generated by my sequencer, and possibly other instruments. as it is i am working with self driven alesis speakers, they sound alright but i don't want to open them up and start messing with the circuits just because i'm bored of their sound. thanks again, i'll keep my eyes peeled for the deals peace, will

[Steve Conner]

You probably need two Ampeg SVTs It would be a lot cheaper and more practical just to use a valve compressor/limiter in front of an ordinary solid-state PA system though. If you can buy/make a processing box with tubes that gives the sound you're looking for, you can use it with the PA that's already in the club, or your monitor speakers at home, or wherever.

I always thought a good way to do this would be a small stereo tube amp, designed for a dirty, saggy sound, driving a pair of dummy loads and DI boxes.

[caveman]

perfect

yeah this sounds like the sort of thing im looking for, thanks a lot bro. so the valve box would be running like a preamp from the mixer? forgive me if i don't know what DI stands for. if i were to build my own can you recommend any schematics that i could reference? i really have no clue. thanks again, hopefully this project could keep me out of the pub