bottledtone wrote
Its not a case of better/worse. Its a case of real full valve amps losing on sales on amps that have the same claims but do have ss circuitry.
Must I now build amps with less valves because no-one cares? Again, its not ss against valve. Its stealing a title, and putting everything with a glowing bottle under it.
Well some if it is better or worse, for certain applications. My 18 watt doesn't do the tight chug chug chug metal thing that well because of its looser response (valve rectifier and all that) whereas a SS rectified amp (say a JCM900) may not sit as well with blues players who likes the sag.
You as a custom amp builder need to build the amps that people cannot go and buy in the shop. You cannot easily compete with the big companies doing their thing, and at the volumes they produce amps. You are aiming at a different market segment altogether and for that particular reason, the people who will buy your amps will do so because of the way you build them, because of the designs you use and because of the exclusivity of the products. Sound quality and reliability in your case is by far the two most important aspects I would imagine. Building cost less so, certainly less than the mass producers. I don't think that the big companies' marketing tactics will hurt you in any way. I think your customers will rather fall into the savvy, "I know what I'm looking for" group.
