Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions High end stereo equipment worth the cost?

Comanies like Axiom and Music Hall are the exception. High quality at a good price. I have been looking into tube gear. The prices of most of this stuff astounds me. I am also a guitar player. I don't understand why I can get a high quality guitar tube amp (4 EL34 or 6L6 power tubes) with great tone and loud enough to fill a large club for around $1500. Yet the same amount of power on a tube stereo amp costs a fortune. I know guitar amps like distortion and stereo systems don't. But I think it is just as hard if not harder to make a guitar amp that musicians will want. Only a few companies dominate the guitar amp market because they have "the sound". The reason for the price disparity is clear to me. Musicians don't have alot of money. Yet high qulity equipment is available to them. It's too bad I had to purchase my tube amp from a chinese company. Now the three week wait. Any comments. Am I wrong?

Anthony:

I think the other issue is economies of scale. They just don't sell that many tube hi-fi amps anymore. They're kind of like audio jewelry. You can get some tube stuff from China for a reasonable price, but any of the tube stuff made in North America is going to cost a lot of dough. Think Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson, Cary Audio Design, these are boutique, limited production manufacturers with (relatively) high labor costs (as in Made in America) that are going cost a pretty penny.

Manufacturers of musical gear like guitar amps etc know that their target market is young poor musicians, so they know they have to hit a lower price point with their products. The target market for 2 channel HiFi is middle age guys with disposable income, so products are geared towards them (fancy cosmetics, wood veneers etc) and prices can be set higher.
Maybe Fender and Gibson should start making hifi stereos! They could probably make a 60 watt integrated tube amp and sell it for $500.

im guessing that the quality involed in a guitar amp is just a BIT different than that in a hifi stereo amp.

If you want quality, at a good price, and like doing things yourself Bottlehead offers a bunch of kits which are reasoably priced and rather good.

I just finished building their Foreplay kit and am pleased with it. Along with the fun that comes with building your own gear.

www.bottlehead.com

Hey,
Thanks for the link. I'll check that out. On the point about small boutique amp companies. I can see that argument to an extent. There are guitar amp companies like that. Matchless is one of them. All point to point hand soldered. Thier amps cost 4 or 5 grand. Not $20,000 for starters. I think the point about who these amps are marketed to is right on. I quess rich people need somthing to blow thier money on. It's too bad for the rest of us. Or good for companies like Jolida or Antique Sound Labs who are either based in China or get alot of thier parts from there. I think it's a shame how the world was fooled to believe solid state was superior. It's just cheaper. Robots can do most of the work.

Hey again,
I just ordered a Antique Sound Labs 50 watt per channel push pull amp. I went to the bottle head web site. I noticed they only sell low wattage amps. I'm kind of curious about these amps. I am new to this. I take it these amps are very quiet on the noise side of things and should sound very good with very effecient speakers. How do these amps sound? It would seem they could be played at quiet to moderate levels at best. Or am I wrong. Ae there higher watt push pull kits available? Do you know what the advantages or disadvantages of the different type of amps are. I know this is alot of questions. Maybe you could point me to an article somwhere.

Thanks

Well i cant speak for their amps, as i only built the preamp kit.

You would be alot better asking these questions on the bottlehead boards where there are alot of helpfull folks that own the things. And try searching the archives before you post because theres alot of good info there. The only kits that they sell is whats on their site, id imagine that with the right gear the amps can play at quite loud levels. What good is a peice of equipment if it can only play at low or moderate levels! of course these aint no 1kW SS amps on cerwin vega's either.

The bottlehead forum ( http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/bottlehead ) or the tubes forum at audioasylum would be the place to ask

Bottle head sells single ended amps. They are low power amps and require high sensitivity speakers (>95 db). Some audiophiles prefer low power amps with sensitive speakers, others prefer high power amps that can drive any speaker. The best thing to do is listen to both combinations and decide for yourself.

Personally, I'm still trying to find a good sounding affordable speaker that is louder than 95db before I buy a low powered amp. They have to look good too (sorry, no straight 8's!)

Ok, thanks for the replies all.