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PP or SET tube amp best resolution on horns?

talking to some knowledgable friends who told me that the design of a SET allows the tiniest parts of the sound to come through whereas the typology of PP cannot do that unless battery biased?????

i am looking for a pair of MONOBLOCK tube amps under 10K used that can run woofers of 110db 60-310hz. i want something more than 25W despite how sensitive speakers are, my experience is that the if too little power, notice it. i play a lot of orchestral.

I am partial toward 300B.... but open to your experience. What do you think should narrow down the audition to?
ml89009
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
I've used both (SET & PP) to voice my horns (95db) and both types of amplification excel at certain aspects of music reproduction.
It would be wise to have both kinds of amplification home for honest evaluation.

Low frequency reproduction of 60Hz-310Hz might be a better job for quality PP or SS Class A amplification tho.

Simpler the better is a good rule of thumbs. Also, watch out for transformer quality and pay attention to circuit design and low floor/noise of the unit - especially in vacuum tube amps.

;)
learsfool
1,215 posts
 
I would suggest checking out the High Efficiency asylum - there have been many discussions of these issues there.
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
I am doing exactly what you are looking into. I built my 106 dB Edgarhorn system over the last two years. My mid-bass horn handles from 80 - 500Hz.

My push-pull amp is a Lectron JH-50, which I'm told Jean Hiraga developed using horns. This is 50 watts, probably a bit more since this amp is modified. The sound is very clean, detailed, and not at all tubey.

The SET I am currently running is a Bottlehead Paramount 300b. It does just get to 8 watts. I can easily chase you out of the room with this meager 8 watts. ;-) I'm not ready to say that SET is better sounding or produces more detail than PP with my horns.

However, my bass horns (20 - 80Hz, roughly), are powered by SS plate amps. Good luck getting 25 watts from 300b SET, though.
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