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SET Asylum Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream. |
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SET Asylum Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream. |
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In Reply to: RE: Sorry posted by MylesJ on August 22, 2017 at 11:13:51:
I don't want to dissuade anyone from more power - you don't want to spend a lot only to have it never be able to play loud. But I put sound quality above volume as to the order of things. Like when I tried the OTO with the B&W N801 and Quads - they sounded vastly better with the OTO than they do with Krell, Classe, Bryston, EL34s, KT88s. BUT the amp could not drive them loud enough to justify the price. SO yes power/sensitivity is an issue.
The trick is to find amplifiers that offer high power that also sound as good as lower powered tube amps(SETS). IME that doesn't exist. Which then rules out all low efficiency speakers from being acceptable.
High power SET is expensive - my old LM 219IA is one of the cheaper best offerings. But going higher efficiency isn't so expensive. And for whatever reason the AN J and E seem to defy specifications and measurements. The only other possible reason I can think as to why a 10 watt AN amp can make the 93DB AN pelt volume while other speakers rated 100dB and 20 watts distort is the quality of AN amps transformers or the kind of speaker design being lossy and minimal damping and using the corner to serve as an extension of the speaker.
The problem with suggesting AN amps second hand is that they tend to go up in value over the years. I can sell my OTO Phono SE for about $600 more than I paid for it back in 2003. Largely because the new OTO has more than doubled in price since then.
If you already have a preamp - this all becomes easy because you can try a bunch of different power amps. Have a big SS for parties and 2A3 for quality music listening. I tend to prefer parallel 300B and 2a3 - perhaps because they do possess more drive, grip and power.
From my price list which is over a year old and provided to me when reviewing the I Zero - it shows the P2SE as $3,650 (18 watts). The Empress Monoblocks (8 watts) start at $5,790 for the pair. The former can be found used but the latter is far less likely as it is a newer product and not as many around.
AN gets quite expensive very fast after this. Empress Silver jumps to $8,000 and the Signature versions jumps to $12,200. And this is the least expensive of their 2a3 amps. They have two other higher level amps in the Neiro($25,000) and Kageki ($64,000) So gets crazy fast.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Sorry - RGA 20:05:10 08/22/17 (0)
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