AVA Ultravalve Vacuum Tube Amplifier by Van Alstine

There are a couple of older reviews out there for this amp--its been around for a long time. Here is one worth a read (date unknown) Jeff Dorgay: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/ava-ultravalve-vacuum-tube-amplifier/

There is also a very good Audiocircle ’circle’ dedicated to AVA--Frank moderates it and he has lots of adherents. For the price it is certainly a very solid way to get into tube amps; given the product’s rep I would suspect it has reasonable resale value (AVA’s design hasn’t changed much as I understand it over the years).

Full disclosure--I own a Bob Latino VTA 120, sort of a competing product. Latino also makes a more direct competing product based on the 70.

There are several others out there doing the same thing, i.e., producing modern versions of the Dynaco line but with improved power supplies, better transformers, improved driver circuits, higher tolerance parts such as caps, coils and resistors, SS chassis, either point-to-point wiring or mil-spec PCB boards, etc.

Most importantly all of them use highly available modern tubes.....

Couple things to consider before pulling the trigger:

1. Make sure you get what you’re looking for in terms of tube rolling, can the AVA run any other output tube besides EL34s? In my case it was important to me to be able to run the different output tubes (KT88s and KT120s, not just EL34). I honestly don’t know if the AVA allows for this (might, just not sure).
2. Does the circuit allow for switching between triode/pentode operation?

Good luck!

Jsl1234,

Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference between triode and pentode operation?