Looking at a few marshall amps and i came across this whole valve amp thing. I've heard about it before, but never really understood it. What types of valves are there?! (i think i've heard of power amp valve) and what type of marshall amps have valves?! Can some of them be part valve and then have that valvestate thing?! :s all pretty damn confussing Cheers
Marshall were big name in Amps when pretty well everything electronic used valves. Some valves were quite small, some larger, and some are still used today in powerful transmitters. There are those who swear that the sound produced by a valve amplifier is far better than a solid state one. Valve technology takes up much more space than solid state, so miniaturisation is a problem, and also uses much more power and produces a lot of heat. Now solid state is capable of producing high power audio amplifiers which use less power and take up less space, so have become the preferred method. Nevertheless, there is a strong following even today for a good high powered valve amplifier. And yes, it is quite possible to have a valve and solid state mix. The solid state works at the input stage, and the valves take over at high power output levels, but I am not sure what the purists would think about this hybrid usage .
