Loudspeaker designer/manufacturer John DeVore shows reviewer Ken Micallef his system.
And quite a system in it is!
At one point John tells Ken that he searched for the best amplifier of each "type" he could find, to use in the development of his various model loudspeakers. John explains in great detail how his speakers interact with different types of amplifiers.
Amongst the rare, unique, rather expensive, and/or otherwise unusual amps he chose, two more common and affordable models stick out: The Parasound A21, and for medium-power push/pull tube amps the Music Reference RM-10. John didn’t call it out by model number, but as he described it as a push/pull design using EL84 tubes it can only be the RM-10 (the only amp matching that description that Roger Modjeski ever marketed).
Modjeski marketed three push/pull amps: the first was the general purpose RM-9 (four EL34’s for 125w/ch)---a favorite of former Stereophile reviewer Dick Olsher, the second the RM-200 (a single pair of KT88’s for 125w/ch), designed to work unusually well with low impedance loudspeakers---Michael Fremer’s reference "affordable" tube amp for many years, and lastly the cute little RM-10 (a pair of EL84’s for 35w/ch). Modjeski said the sound of the RM-10 was his favorite of the three.
https://youtu.be/i9WYbi7afGQ?si=qkf8AiUCF_9_z2cl
@jasonbourne71: While doubting a pair of EL84’s can produce 35 watts, you failed to question a pair of KT88’s producing 125 watts. And yet Modjeski did just that in his RM-200 amplifier. For proof, read the test bench results John Atkinson got in Michael Fremer’s Stereophile review of the amp, in both original (100 watt rating) and Mk.2 (125 watt) iterations. Few hi-fi tube amp designers have/had the depth of knowledge about vacuum tubes that Roger Modjeski did. Luckily a lot of his wisdom on the subject survives in the pages of AudioCircle (in the dormant Music Reference Forum). He designed his first amplifier (a single-ended triode) as age 6! He started repairing hi-fi electronics at a retail store while still in high school, and studied tubes for the rest of his life, visiting many tube manufacturing plants in England, Europe, and Eastern Block countries.. He then went to work for Harold Beveridge, the ESL loudspeaker designer/manufacturer. When that endeavor ended he started RAM Labs, RAM Tube Works, and finally Music Reference. His final product was a direct-drive ESL loudspeaker (no input transformer), the ESL stators and diaghrams driven directly by an OTL amplifier. WOW!
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and don’t forget RAM Tubes with fantastic computerized curve testing against many critical to in circuit test points…. flunking out some 90% of current production tubes… still in business and i recall operated by @clio |
