Tube preamp topologies and music

So much commentary on single ended 300 B tubes and low wattage amplifiers.

@jasonbourne71 has some outstanding commentary but requires great expertise to really understand things.

My take away is that you risk higher distortion when you have low wattage amplifiers. I guess the speakers should be highly efficient but then this may lead to distortion when you want to turn the volume up in a bigger room.

Maybe lower watt amplifiers are good for small rooms where higher wattage amplifiers Will have no problem filling a larger room.

I didn’t follow the impedance curve tracking rationale where if it happens you’ll have increasing distortion.

Impedance as a relates to lower wattage Single end tubes is not easy to understand for me at least but I’m open. I have 16 kt88s on my 300 watt tube monos and there doesn’t seem to be any distortion that I can here.

Most single-ended tube amplifiers have relatively high output impedance a) because only one output device is being used and b) because they usually don’t use feedback, which also contributes to higher output impedance and poorer damping factor. Your amp uses multiple devices in parallel, and also most likely a good bit of feedback, both of which greatly reduce the output impedance and increase the damping factor.

gochurchgo

I can highly recommend the tube amplifiers and preamplifiers of Aric Audio, and I agree that a "Push Pull" configuration might best provide what you are looking for. Give Aric Kimball (owner of Aric Audio) a call, he builds 7 different amplifiers with several different topologies.

He's great to have a conversation with and get some feedback; and he makes killer hand built tube gear, I've got several of his pieces including an EL34 "Push Pull" that is extraordinary.

@gochurchgo There are now class D amps that have the same distortion character as the best tube amps (but lower overall). Distortion is why tube amps sound the way they do, just as distortion is why most solid state amps sound harsh and bright. Put another way, the sonic signature of any amplifier is caused by its distortion signature.

So if you want an amplifier that is smooth, detailed and involving, you are not limited to tubes any more. Some (certainly not all) class D amps have a distortion signature that is identical to the best tube amps and so sound just like them too (although are more transparent owing to distortion being lower overall).

@gochurchgo Wrote:

So Probably a push/pull design would fare better? 

Yes. In my opinion, a push/pull class (A) tube amp would fare better, less distortion and more power than a single-ended class (A) design. Rogers High fidelity makes class (A) single-ended and class (A) push pull tube amps see here. 😎

Mike