What is the "sound" dif. between a Joule -Elctra OTL and a SET amp??

I have heard the older Wyetech 211 amps with the Audio Note transformers and that is a very nice sounding amp.  It was being used with ultra high efficiency speakers (107 db/w) so I do not know how they perform with speakers that are not that efficient.  

I have also heard several Joule OTL amps and they were quite nice sounding too.  For OTLs, they are on the fuller, warmer side of the tonal spectrum. One of the Joules I heard had some noise issues, and this was the case even when running speakers that were not extremely efficient.  I happen to like the lively, dynamic sound of OTL amps.  The Classic Audio speakers I heard, particularly the field coil models, are themselves very dynamic and lively sounding, but, I never thought that combining an OTL with such speakers resulted in too much of a good thing (they sounded quite good with the Atmasphere OTLs that they are often paired with at audio shows).

You can never know how something will work out unless you actually try the particular combination; see if you can arrange an in-home audition with the Joules.

Hi Charles 1 dad,

I too find both the Atmasphere and Berning to be somewhat on the lean side, but, I like the liveliness of the sound they deliver.  While I did not make any sort of direct comparison of the Joules with either OTL, I did hear the Joules against another OTL (custom-made, non-commercial amps) and the Joules were slightly warmer sounding, but, also not quite as dynamic and lively; so, at least in this case, there was some tradeoff involved.  I think one can get quite lively sound from other tube topologies, like SET amps, but, the big limitation there is that the best sounding SET amps have a very limited output and only work well with a few speakers; OTLs can be made to work with a wider range of speakers.  

The BIG Joule OTL I heard also had a problem which caused it to intermittently put out a HUGE, window rattling pop.  This turned out to be caused by bad tube sockets which had to be replaced.  That is a very BIG job on amps with that many tubes.  I know a few people who had, in my view, a bit more reliability issues with their OTLs than I would be comfortable with having in my own system.  I have had zero reliability issues with my Audio Note Kageki or my pushpull Western Electric 133 amp, but, I just might be lucky (so far).