NOSValves

A convenient SET lovers specification .. measure distortion at 1 watt.... The industry standard is at full power.. which is what my quote represented ... If you measure a quality PP amp at 1 watt the distortion would be too low to accurately measure .. I could care what your supposed industry giants have to say ..

Yeah I read the revised post. Looks good to me! Thanks Craig

Well I got the first half of your post by what it said I sure wish you'd of left it up I'd enjoyed reading the rest!

Yea it's been too long to hash it out now....my memory sucks these days too!!

Not sure why you post things in response you me that you ought to know I'm very aware of... your first paragraph is what I'm talking about. Do you really need to go to such length to agree with me? Okay... "As far as single ended class A operation it is still considered the purest form of amplification due to the fact the audio signal is not manipulated in any form such as being split into with the positive side of the waveform amplified with one circuit and the negative phase amplified by another as in a push pull amplifier then joined back together to drive the speaker." The above is just plain wrong...Do single ended amp split the signal no they do not but they also do not have some straight wire honest reproduction either...You prefer it and that is okay I have no problem with it. But let's be clear adding 5 to 10% distortion is absolutely adding something or is manipulating the signal regardless of what order of distortion it is...it is indeed distortion. Singal ended amp indeed do it in the euphoric way that can be addictive but it is very far from the signal that enters the amplifier... "The term distortion usually refers to a deviation from the original perfect form. In sound contexts this is a deviation from the perfect, desired sound curve." Distortion refers to the altering or deformation of an audio signal's original waveform. Technically, any kind of audio processing (EQ, compression, time-based effects, etc.) alters an audio signal, but in audio production, the term is used to describe either intentional or undesired sonic destruction.

I actually now remember you bringing this up in the distant past, it still makes me scratch my head LOL!! But hey as long as you're happy. As a side note the situation you describe where you found this is flawed in some way. I'm not sure how much power the amp had but just about any CD player playing full blast into an amplifier with 1 Volt to full power should have been clipping to an extreme amount, which should have sounded absolutely horrible! So again my head is itching... this make zero sense.

Good Post Mike I commend you on the common sense. I'll never understand the "only one-way, absolute best" attitude by many in this hobby. Or the well (insert your favorite audio reviewer or designer celebrity) says this as a valid end all absolute point. This is hobby of self gratification. All we can share is what gratifies us personally.

The node should at the minimum be turned up half way (all the way up would most likely be best).. set it so that you get from 10:00 to 2:00 usage of the Marantz's main volume control for your normal listening levels. Chances are very good you're better off using the Marantz volume control for everyday adjustments over the Node operating in the digital domain.

Could you share what preamp that was?

Clear, Detail, Resolution is the norm for description of passive preamps. To me they always lack foundation or body they just seem incomplete....

One correction I mistakenly thought you were referencing Steve Hoffman as the reviewer but I just noticed my error. Was looking up some other information on some modern tube amps a ran into his Steve Huff highly advertising laden website....if you really think that guy is not motivated by the almighty $ I feel sorry for you...

One misconception about the class A versus class A/B when using speakers like most of us use around here. Quality Class A/B tube amps with some headroom will barely ever leave class A operation, when they do its usually for a heavy hitting very brief transient or bass note comes into play. I personally think for us high efficiency speaker users class A amplifiers are a waste of money, energy and tubes! With me the disadvantages of class A out ways the advantages which I can not think of one advantage. In fact, I have designed a number of class A push/pull tube amps and could never find a reason to release one over my Class A/B VRD's. As many that have been around here know I do not at all care for single ended tube amps. They make many happy which is the point of this hobby, I'm just not one of them. To me the sound is just too unrealistic and distortion laden I could care less what order it is... Cheers Craig

My first piece of advice I can give you is stop going by what you're told and go by what YOU hear. This is a self-gratification type hobby. If the sound from your own system pleases you the job is complete. Also do not be so presumptuous as to think just because you love how it sounds others should too! There are absolutely no absolutes in this hobby. Now onto the rest...I suggest you invest in a better digital front end...if everything is "right" you should hear very little difference in the sound of the two formats. Do not think this requires megabucks to be spent. Look for the latest greatest DAC from 5 or more years ago on the used market and also make sure you are listening to digital recordings up to the task. Good Luck Craig PS don't get me wrong I'm a vinyl lover! But digital can sound every bit as good if done right.

Holy fright they still let Thebes post here! Now I know the place hasn't completely gone to the dogs! Just barely LOL!!

By the way folks don't make assumptions about me, as I type this in my study I'm using a early 70's Kenwood KA-7002 Solid State integrated amp with my original Heresy speakers the Kenwood was refurbished by Paul at Many Moons Audio. Sounds spectacular in this 12' X 14' room. I paid $40 for it LOL now that is a good review! The refurb was about $500. I'll take this over 95% of the over priced crap in audio rags! The only part of audio I don't is the BS....

It is a great clip .. great clip full of BS! Reviewers are just a piece in the massive machine that keeps the audiofool business rolling. The idea that some new refreshing tricks have been found in tube audio some nearly 60 years after they were mainstream is just silly... Solid State has also been figured out to a T for decades hence the reason Klipsch still has those great crown amps! They also have tube amps in house too! The reviewers job is to keep the BS rolling over top of audiofools heads! Get that money!

Just a small little company in Texas... I easily looked up that they rake in 5 million a year gross sales... Far small a small business that can't grease a few advertisers hands to get good reviews in the magazine both print and online.. hell it has been the audio industry standard business practice since audio became a hobby. Steve Hoffman. Your kidding me right! Old Steve has never reviewed a peice of gear he didn't get to keep. He tried to negotiate that exact deal with Klipsch on Klipsch horns but at the time Klipsch refused. So in essence you agree reviews are biased👍 When the reviewer is getting thousands of dollars worth of gear plus being paid by the publication how can the reviews not be biased? I think you might be a snow flake 🤷 So I stand by my statement I don't give reviews from paid reviewers any credence.. I'm really sorry found your advice hypocritical... I didn't think you'd get you panties on such a ruffle! PS: I don't recall stating ALL solid state amps are bad with Klipsch speakers... Please don't put words in my mouth.

Well in my 35 years of satisfying countless Klipsch owners just about all I've heard back from report they have none of the supposed Klipsch shortcomings... In my opinion most of those short coming were garnished during the era where solid state ruled the day and tubes were a thing of the past... Mind you at least 80% of those satisfied customer garnished that satisfaction from the amps you say "had a few details to refine" . My point is engineers educated in the 40's through the 60's {not me} were trained specifically with tubes as the one and only electronic device used in just about all electronics. Those guys forgot more about designing tube gear than these modern guys have or ever will learn.. As far as reading some professional reviewers opinion no thanks most of not all of those folks are bought and paid for by the industry either directly or indirectly... Never heard or read a bad review of the product regardless of how god awful it is... or they refrain from publishing the reviews since the manufacturers will cut off the advertising funds!

Interesting and probably a wise approach...but the first thing I read when searching the amplifier mentioned it's considered Raven entry level product.... So, the question is when is the cheaper step going cause the lower performance drive you nuts LOL!! I foresee an itch coming your way!

Most of the difference between the performance/sound of SS vs Tube rectification is from people that do exactly what is done with the amplifier in question. Plugging a SS tube replacement slug into an amplifier designed for a tube rectifier is a serious compromise. SS diode take entirely different power supply designs and voltage correction. SS rectification require larger filter banks and some way to lower the voltage back to design to allow proper biasing of the output Tubes. Simply lowering the bias is a band-aid. Every single stage of the amp will be operating at an over voltage which indeed will result in a sonic character change. In the case of Dynaco or Dynaclone like this moving to SS rectification on many of the amplifiers pushes the voltages over the specification of the power supply capacitors which are already run too close to spec. In many cases. If the user can't hear the difference they might be better served to get rid of there tube gear all together. Craig

Modern production or vintage 5AR4 there is no reason to design an amplifier to use the tube beyond it's specification... No excuse for reckless engineering... To put it in laymen's terms there is no way to reliably eeck out more than about 60 watts of power from a single 5AR4 vintage or modern. Sure vintage will take it for a bit longer but as scarce as they are why burn them up? By the way the Tung-Sol reissue 5AR4 is just the Sovtek with a base change with a vintage name stamped on it (with a higher price). As is all the modern production 5AR4 tubes with vintage names. You can thank New Sensor corporation out of New York for that scam job along with every other tube type with a vintage name today. Blatant scams if you ask me... It's the world we live on today no integrity anywhere.. Cheers Craig

It does run the 5AR4 hard in fact way beyond spec which is why they start arcing over pretty quick in most cases especially any modern production 5AR4. I have no idea why Bob didn't design it with dual 5AR4's? with SS rectification you probably should be using something to get the voltage down since using SS results in much less voltage drop. The SS rectifier solves one problem but creates a running voltage problem. By the way I hope you know that the number on the dial or built in gage of a simple variac like your using are never accurate. You need to confirm what the amp is being fed! Good luck Craig

Chances are your amp will run just fine and dandy at 119 to 124 AC volts... But I see no reason that you couldn't plug the variac into the wall plug your GFI unit into the variac and then the amp if you want to be ultra safety minded, the variac should not mess up the GFI if it's before the GFI...plugging the variac into the GFi and the amp into the variac would most likely cause the GFI to trip it fuse.

How high is the wall voltage that you use a variac to knock it down?

What sources are you using?