Looking to get into SET amps—recommendations?

[nikon f]

Bottlehead Stereomour, fun to build, excellent assembly manual, great customer service, and great forum.

 

[twiiii]

Set are not very linear and are easily influenced by the speakers load on the amplifier. Just read the review on the new AK6 Klipschorn published by Stereo while. A +/- 10 db response response from the amp used by the poor amp design and the speakers load on the amp makes for very compromised sound. Go find a Mac MC 225 or small Marantz tube amps. The resulting +/- 3 db response will be a big improvement.;

 

[decooney]

Set are not very linear and are easily influenced by the speakers load on the amplifier. Just read the review on the new AK6 Klipschorn published by Stereo while. A +/- 10 db response response from the amp used by the poor amp design and the speakers load on the amp makes for very compromised sound. Go find a Mac MC 225 or small Marantz tube amps. The resulting +/- 3 db response will be a big improvement.;

Speaker matching can be tricky some times. Lesson's learned. Not all mid to high efficiency speakers will sound great with any lower (under 10w) watt SET tube amps. As long as one goes into it with an open mind, the only way to know first hand is to try it. However, noting several looking at different speakers again after buying SET amps looking for a better synergy. Ya don't see this occur as much with higher-powered tube amps or really good SS amps. I had to settle on higher power tube amps for the tube sound, better woofer control and increased dynamics because I'm not into the type of sound horns speakers produce by preference.

 

[RJBarton]

The Tube Labs 300B was fun to build and is very quiet, no hum. With the tube labs amp it can be wired for 2A3's also. I do like single ended pentode amps. I've thought about building one with something like KT-88's not wired triode mode though. The only pentode SE amp I've built so far uses a single 6LR8 per channel. Driver and output all in one bottle. It sounds very good with plenty of low end grunt for 5.5wpc.

Very nice. Do you have any photos you could share go your Tube Lab amps?
I have boards for the SE and the SSE. For obvious reasons I'm going to start with the SSE. I've had these boards and the big parts for years but just haven't built them yet. This year tho.

 

[Lavane]

I can get you a photo tomorrow. It's on my Bench right now being used to test a preamp.
As for the SE, make sure you read every page carefully. The Instructions jumped around a bit on his site when I built mine. And use a choke instead of the 5 watt resistor.

 

[RJBarton]

I can get you a photo tomorrow. It's on my Bench right now being used to test a preamp.
As for the SE, make sure you read every page carefully. The Instructions jumped around a bit on his site when I built mine. And use a choke instead of the 5 watt resistor.

Yeah I'd love to see it. I was reading through the resistor section on George's site earlier this evening where I believe he mentioned the choke option.

 

[Lavane]

Yeah I'd love to see it. I was reading through the resistor section on George's site earlier this evening where I believe he mentioned the choke option.

Plus some have posted over at DIY about the heat from the resistor being pretty high.

 

[RJBarton]

Plus some have posted over at DIY about the heat from the resistor being pretty high.

I need to get back over to that board and do some reading, haven't been on there in a long time.

 

[Lavane]

I need to get back over to that board and do some reading, haven't been on there in a long time.

He came out with a revised board. So make sure you read everything so you order the right parts.

 

[Lavane]

I need to get back over to that board and do some reading, haven't been on there in a long time.

I sent you a PM with pictures of the amp and under side. If I remember right I used a 5H choke.