Would You Rather Own A Good SET Amp, Or A Great Push Pull Amp?
Throwing this out there because I would appreciate the viewpoints of the many knowledgeable, and experienced audio people here. I'm really torn about a decision I am considering in this regard. And no, sorry, I cannot name the amps involved. I could lose one or both options if I publicized them here. And honestly, only the tiniest fraction of forum members would ever have listened to even one of these options.
The speakers they would be used with can equally accommodate either of these choices per the designer/manufacturer, who I ran it by.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
@niodari All electronics don't care what kind of music you put through them, which is to say there is no way an amplifier can favor a certain genre of music. The level of difficulty is thus the same for the amp regardless of the music.
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@atmasphere , I readily trust your knowledge and experience and these observations. In my previous post, I tried to argue that, independent of electronics, on an ideal amplifier, an inherently non-loud music would sound "forced" if reproduced loudly, whereas an inherently loud music would sound more coherent on that amplifiers on the same volume. I suggest it's more related to the acoustics and how we pensive sound waves. |
Agreed, SET, pp or any amp for that matter should not favor any genre of music over another. With the following caveat; with acoustic music/instruments we have a reference for natural/inherent timbre, a quality amp, regardless of topology should be able to reproduce this accurately. Of course other components of system, room, AC, etc affect this ability to some degree.
As for loudness of recordings, in general I've found louder recordings to be more dynamically compressed than those recorded less loud. Rock and 'commercial' recordings in general are notorious for this, 'loudness wars'. And macro dynamics are one thing, micro quite a different thing, recordings that are micro dynamically compressed are far more egregious to me, uncompressed micro dynamics bring musicians alive, you can sense and feel small changes in breath, tension on strings. Based on my experience with various amp topologies and speakers, SET and horns are extraordinary in reproducing the finest degree of micro dynamics. My latest push pull doing quite well here as well.
As for sense of SET loudness factor vs PP. I'm presently hearing exactly the same thing I've always heard with SET vs PP amps. This a more forward sound stage with SET vs PP, with SET certain info, therefore, close miked or instruments/voices recorded with a small boost in db are pushed further out into room, very noticeable my latest PP, front of sound stage only extends to front of speaker cabinet. This can have the effect of making the SET seeming to play louder when in fact it isn't.
I've also always found preamps to have a great effect on presentation of amps. I have two DHT and one 6sn7 based pre, I can use 71A or UX112A with one pre, the other uses 101D, varying microphonics of these tubes affect overall presentation.
If there is one thing people should take away from this thread, @atmasphere is entirely on point with the critical need to match amps to speakers, these flea powered SET need something around 100db and pretty benign impedance curves to work within their intended range, IMO. This to be able to listen at volume levels into the 80's which is as high as I go, generally I'm listening in 70's range with my 103db modded Khorns. And I'm not even sure I trust a 2a3 to have the balls to drive these, considering a 50DHT.
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