Question for Audiophiles

[chef]

Ok, so I've just got back from a nice weeks break in Croatia and the cottage we rented had a preamp and a Valve power amp not that dissimilar from this:

Preamp


Power Amp


It had a headphone jack to connect my ipod to it and once connected the sound quality was stunning. It had a rich feel to it and amazing clarity in detail, combined with the simple look to it and the slightly glowing tubes I was very impressed.


So, being an audiophile idiot I'm trying to get my head around the reason for the excellent sound quality.

I know that both the preamp and tube power amp in the cottage were hand built by a friend of the owners who is an audio buff and into that stuff, the speakers connected were fairly old Mission 702's (not the 702e floor standing ones).

So,

1) would it be the tube's giving it the rich sound? or the preamp and the tubes are more for decoration? I doubt very much it's the speakers given their age and the input came from my ipod which when connected to my receiver at home sounds nowhere near as good as it has more of a digital feel about it.

this then got me thinking about my current setup, right now I have a fairly decent Home Theatre PC based around the Asus P7H55 motherboard with onboard 7.1 sound connected to a fairly decent Harman Kardon receiver and currently connected to fairly old Wharfedale Diamond 10 speakers. And yet the sound I hear sounds flat in comparisson to the rich detailed sound from the tube amp.

2) what would have the greatest impact on improving sound quality?
a) better speakers (circa £2,000)
b) adding a valve power amp and change my current receiver to output as a pre-amp (circa £600 if I get the same guy to build a replica)
c) buy a fairly decent sound card for the HTPC rather than use the current onboard sound. (circa £160)

essentially what i don't know is which component has the biggest impact on the the sound you hear, obviosuly all have a part but what has the biggest effect?
-the original component i.e the HTPC and therefore the sound quality this sends
-the receiver, which could then either be the preamp part or the power amp and would adding the valve power amp while still using my receiver as a preamp make so much of a difference
-the speakers

I look forward to your well informed techy responses.

[DimPrawn]

I look forward to your well informed techy responses.

[fragglerock]

There is a very definite valve 'sound', usually defined as 'warm'

This may be what you are hearing as trying to get too much detail from an mp3 player usually fails pretty badly.

Valve audio amplifier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are super pretty so any set-up benefits from some valves


Edit: The last line is my techy response

[zeitghost]

It's the valves, innit.

Simples.

Probably the power amp.

Which looks as if its got KT88 (or Chinese equivalent) in pushpull class AB (for a bet).

Anyone remember this?

[DimPrawn]

[Fred Bloggs]

The audiophile way of looking at this is from the GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) principle. The resulting sound is only as good as the source and the next link up in the chain of sound reproduction. So, start at the beginning with the best source you can, definately not MP3's or any compressed source and then put as little as you can between the source and your ears. Every link in the chain of sound reproduction creates losses and adds its own distortions or colour to the resulting sound. What you describe is typical of valve power amplifiers.

[DimPrawn]

The audiophile way of looking at this is from the GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) principle. The resulting sound is only as good as the source and the next link up in the chain of sound reproduction. So, start at the beginning with the best source you can, definately not MP3's or any compressed source and then put as little as you can between the source and your ears. Every link in the chain of sound reproduction creates losses and adds its own distortions or colour to the resulting sound. What you describe is typical of valve power amplifiers.

WHS.

Sticking an ipod into an expensive valve amp is like sticking AtW's nob into a beautiful woman. Ridiculous.

[ChrisPackit]

I'm still gutted from selling my Linn Sonndek turntable a few years ago.

I doubt you would get a better sounding 'source' as that - none of this digital rubbish

[Pondlife]

WHS.

Sticking an ipod into an expensive valve amp is like sticking AtW's nob into a beautiful woman. Ridiculous.

I agree you'd have to spend a lot of money to make either feasible.

[d000hg]

On the off-chance you're not aware, AVForums.com is worth joining.