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otl vs push/pull

Can anyone share their impressions of a p/p sound vs a OTL amp sound. My speakers can handle an otl amp, coincident partial eclipse. It's been suggested I take a look at an otl amp as it would be a significant upgrade over my Cary sli-80. I do not have any dealers in my area, so I can not audition an OTL.
Thanks
Mike
128x128brm1
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Jallen...As I understand it, Atma-Sphere amps do not destroy speakers when a tube fails. That was a drawback of some other OTL amps.
macrojack
1,303 posts
 
OTL means output transformerless. PP means push/pull. These are not mutually exclusive terms as far as I know. The Atmasphere amps are both. Does anyone make a single ended OTL?
fenderb
2 posts
 
I believe Transcendent Sound Make a S.E. OTL
glide3
402 posts
 
I've owned many amps of all variety and with the proper speaker an OTL can be as good as it gets IMO

I don't think the modern designs have any problems blowing speakers.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Correct, only the really old Futterman type OTL amps had trouble damaging speakers.

Although some would argue that Berning amps aren't true OTLs(I'm not getting into that old debate), I believe they are S.E., and they portray most of the traits of other great OTLs like the Joule Electras & Atma-Spheres.

Matching w/speakers that have a high impedance (ideally >8ohms) throughout the frequency range is critical with any OTL amp. Cheers,

Spencer
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