Octave Audio amplifiers


Any good? Who has them? How do they sound compared to, say, VAC, Allnic, Atma-Sphere, Japanese tube amps ? Look serious to me.
inna

Showing 5 responses by inna

Ampus, this sounds very good to me. What speakers do you and your dealer use with them ?
Many brands are underrepresented or not represented at all in the US.
So they are on a 'colder side' of tube sound, at least with stock tubes.
Jafant, thank you, I'll keep it in mind - SE only.
Ampus and XTI16, thank you, valuable experience and details.
I will always have warmer sounding speakers, this doesn't mean artificially warm and unbalanced, think of more balanced than in reality Grado Reference wooden headphones. And I almost never push speakers and electronics hard. It appears that Octave could be an excellent choice especially with the right tubes, it is good that they work with many. I don't think that I like "beautiful" sounding amps but I most certainly dislike sterile sounding amps, and Octave is neither.
I remember - SE models, I might actually try even lower powered 40SE.
Xti16, of course I would expect better control with more powerful models. Important thing is that basically the sound remains the same throughout the line. With the speakers I have now, Michael Green Audio free resonance speakers, the point of control is especially important. I believe, they were, generally speaking, designed to be driven by transistor or hybrid amps, but I think I would want to try tube amp at some point, and it seems that Octave could be an excellent choice, this side of some great separates. And replacing speakers would be a difficult and expensive endeavor. Free resonance speakers have their drawbacks but they have the advantages too.