Tube SET Pre to Tube SET Amp

Jeff, no luck with Googling my Bel Canto SEP1 for the specs? Marco, I'm going to give your man Mike a shot. Can't beat the price, and he certainly has a good following. thanks for the tip....

Sorry Warren - thought you were asking 'bout going to separates...didn't notice it was only a declaration. As it happens, I use Mike Sanders very affordable silver IC's to go between amp and pre. Go figure. I'm starting to sound like a shill here, but I've tried a few others including Stealth (can't recall which, but I believe it was one of their silver cables), DH Labs Air Matrix, and Harmonic Tech Truthlink, and I keep coming back to his simple, inexpensive silver IC's. YMMV, of course, but it'd be a cheap experiment. There's a 3 meter pair currently up though price is a bit high IMO...no association with seller, nor with the manufacturer other than being a happy customer. Haven't compared to Zu Varials though, nor any Zu cables. I always seem to prefer silver between pre and amp, whereas I've found I'm liking copper better between source and pre (I like the Truthlinks there).

Marco

Mattybumpkin, where have you been this past year. I sat shiver for those babies. I'm a tuber now. Never thought it could happen to me. Harmonix still there. The others? Been a year since their demise. Everything is temporary in this audiophoolish sport. Can you relate?

Marco, I'm talking ICs big guy: preamp to amp.

Second hand, and first hand experience here, Warren: Mike Sanders is going into production on his design of KT88 paralell SET mono amps. I'm not sure when they'll be available, but it should be pretty soon. A mutual friend of Mike and mine owns a pair of the prototypes of this amp, which, I believe are to be identical to the production amps. Initially when brand new he was a bit disappointed, but after a week of break-in he was overwhelmed by the performance, and this person has very high standards. He also owns one of the very few 300B SET amps Mike has built (I think there are four or five). As you may know, I own and love his 300B SET amps, but he won't put those into production as Mike does not approve of the 2nd order harmonic distortion inherent in 300B SET designs. I recently wrote to Mike to ask about his new KT88 amps and he told me he thought they were the best single-ended amps he's built. He has designed many prototypes that are not on his website like mine which he only built a few of - I've owned an EL34 Triode amp he built that was really quite wonderful as well. Just the fact that he's decided to actually produce a single ended design makes it a worthy candidate for your consideration IMO. I think Mike designs and builds great amps at very fair prices. I believe the KT88's are going to be around $2800/pair. I've owned four different pairs of his amps, and all four have been great in their own right. I still have the 300B SETs which are a personal favorite. Needless to say, I'm a big fan. Write to Mike directly if you want more info on the KT88 paralell SETs as they are not on his website. No direct experience myself with those amps.

Marco

Warrenh,

Wait a sec, Zu's? What happened to the Caravelles, YBA, Prima, Harmonix cables....

Wow....

.5meters. I'll have to get the specs. not handy.

What's the output impedance of the preamp? The input impedance of the poweramp? What cable length would you need?
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