SET the best?


Is SET amplification where we should all end up? I keep reading posts where people tell of their journeys from plenty power to micro power, and how amazing SET amplification is 45 set 211 set 845 set otl, and usually, ....with the right speaker. I have yet to read of anyone who has gone the other direction from SET, to High watt beast class A amps or others.
If your speakers can be driven by minimal wattage, is this the most realistic, natural sound we can achieve? versus say, 86db sensitive speakers and a 1000w amp?
Is the end result solely based on speaker pairing? circuit? tubes?

I am in the process of changing my direction in my search for realistic sound, just because, and wondering if this really is the best direction to be going.
From what I have been reading I think it may be.

What do we get with SET? What do we give up?

What's you favorite color?
hanaleimike

Showing 3 responses by pesky_wabbit

due to to the presence of the 5th and 7th harmonics, which tell the brain how loud the sound is.
Intrigued. Could you please point me in the direction of any credible scientific documentation which arrives at this conclusion?
@atmasphere thanks, I’m lucky enough to have an old dog eared copy of RDH3. You are right, they knew an awful lot back then.

It’s surprising how often I have read that modern designers have discovered that upon further analysis, some ‘antiquated’ circuits have turned out to be far more sophisticated than appeared at first glance. Audio Note made significant improvements to their linestage shunt regulator through this process. Schade feedback was forgotten for decades.