DK Design VS-1 versus 300b sound

Sounds like it could be a fair question if asked in a more general sense: whether solid state at its best can provide a "best of both worlds" or whether we'll still have to use highly efficient speakers and low powered tube amps to get that "SET magic".

Perhaps the reason this question seemed like a shill to you is that it was so focused on DK amps instead of solid state amps more generally? That does seem a bit odd...... Hmmmm. Why would someone who has this interest be focused solely on whether DK's solid state amp offers SET quality sound.

Art

Who has replaced tube separates with the DK design? I'd sure be interested to hear their experiences. I seem to have missed this as well.
Thanks,
Art

Thanks for digging up those references to the folks who switched from tube amps to DK amp. I actually did read those when they first appeared and I totally forgot about them.
Art

Shill ! ; - )

Sorry that I was not clear - perhaps a poor attempt at humor. I thought those were some real useful and meaningful posts regarding DK - not shill at all - and I was making fun of some people's knee-jerk reaction (including my own at first) that if someone praises the DK stuff they must be a shill.

Usually the smiling face :-) means "I'm kidding".

Art

I'm also one of DK's three testers. I used to own Conrad Johnson Premier 12's, with preamps CJ 17LS or First Sound Deluxe mk II, so I do have a strong taste - I think - of high quality tube gear.

SET vs DK is to me to be the missing element. I've been meaning for some time to get some SET amplification in my house, and now might be a good time because it could go head to head with the DK.

By the way, I included in my writeup for DK, but it was not presented, that I plan to schlep the DK over to my friends house for testing on his system. It's a very high resolution system - Rowland monoblocks (the new model) and First Sound Deluxe mk II into Thiel 2.4's. So I think this will be quite a battle, even that it's not tube amplification. In particular, the First Sound has black background with explosive clarity that I've not heard matched by other preamps.

I am very open to suggestions regarding my testing of the DK.

artmaltman@yahoo.com

Thanks,
Art

Jmcgrogan2 makes an interesting point, when he suggests it's hard to believe that a hybrid could sound like an SET (or visa versa I guess).

Thirty years ago tube amps and solid state amps sounded very different, and they each had their strengths and weaknesses. Over time designers have been working to diminish the weaknesses and improve the strengths, and the result is that solid state and (at least push-pull) tube are becoming more and more comparable, picking up more of the positive traits of the other. Will pure solid state ever be as life-like as tube? I don't know, but it's getting closer.

This may happen even for SET amps. I have personally heard SET amps in recent years that do not have the traditional drawbacks of early SETs - which to my ear were loose bass and rolled highs. We no longer have to make that tradeoff in order to obtain the glorious mids of SETs. Even the power of SET's have increased somewhat, so that we can use a little bit less efficient speakers with them.

Stranger things have happened. Let's be skeptical but open-minded.

Art