2. best-of
  3. 1235351076

PP or SET tube amp best resolution on horns?

talking to some knowledgable friends who told me that the design of a SET allows the tiniest parts of the sound to come through whereas the typology of PP cannot do that unless battery biased?????

i am looking for a pair of MONOBLOCK tube amps under 10K used that can run woofers of 110db 60-310hz. i want something more than 25W despite how sensitive speakers are, my experience is that the if too little power, notice it. i play a lot of orchestral.

I am partial toward 300B.... but open to your experience. What do you think should narrow down the audition to?
ml89009

Showing 1 response by dan_ed

dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
I am doing exactly what you are looking into. I built my 106 dB Edgarhorn system over the last two years. My mid-bass horn handles from 80 - 500Hz.

My push-pull amp is a Lectron JH-50, which I'm told Jean Hiraga developed using horns. This is 50 watts, probably a bit more since this amp is modified. The sound is very clean, detailed, and not at all tubey.

The SET I am currently running is a Bottlehead Paramount 300b. It does just get to 8 watts. I can easily chase you out of the room with this meager 8 watts. ;-) I'm not ready to say that SET is better sounding or produces more detail than PP with my horns.

However, my bass horns (20 - 80Hz, roughly), are powered by SS plate amps. Good luck getting 25 watts from 300b SET, though.
More to discover