Vintage tube sound from a modern amp

     If one seeks a warmer, more romantic (colored) presentation from the typical tube amp, whether newer or older: try NOS tubes manufactured in Britain (ie: Mullard, Brimar, Genelex) especially in the amp's early stages.

     For a sound somewhere between the cleanest and warmest: tubes from Holland and Belgium (ie: Amperex, Philips, etc) will generally do it.

     For the more dedicated tweaker: change out resistors in the signal path, for noisier/warmer types, such as carbon composition.

     Some of the oil-filled capacitors out there are quite warm, or: seek out NOS Black Cat types.    They'll warm things up also, when used as coupling caps.

      Lots of way to find a sound that sates your particular tastes, with a valve amp.

I’m going to have to say the Vincent S-332 solid state Class A/B tube hybrid power amp.  It has 150/250 wpc into 8 and 4ohms is worth a listen.  Nice warm tube sound, power meters, balanced inputs.  Pushes my Dynaudio Contour S3.4’s with ease.  

- Decware has a 3 year wait? Really? What happens if you need to have it serviced? I sure am glad I didn’t go to them.

- OTLs imho are something to consider. The company that I know of is Atmasphere, but I believe there are others. I believe they all are a variation of the legendary Julius Futterman design. The idea was to get a less colored and less distorted, more transparent and cleaner sound out of tubes. I have the NY Audiolab OTL3s. Jon Specter, formerly of NY Audiolabs and a great blues guitarist and member of the blues hall of fame, converted my pair from pentode to triode and upgraded all the capacitors. I’ve had these amps for 37 years and see no reason to upgrade. I’ll explain more about them in an article I will be writing about my total audio system and my approach to music and audio experience over the last 54 years when I finish my latest home restoration project in a few more months.

- My first amp on my audio journey was a tube amp, and I’ve been a tube guy since. That amp was a Dynaco Stereo 70, which I bought when I was 14 years old in 1968 as a kit and built myself. Hafler’s design was ingeniously simple and the Stereo 70 is still considered one of the all time great amps. I especially hold it in high regard because - as some lefties say, socialism is so that everyone can enjoy a chocolate eclair - so Hafler’s philosophy was to design at a price point that the average working schlemiel - or, in my case, teenage hippie mowing lawns and washing dishes - could afford, so that the masses could all enjoy quality audio.

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