kev313

For all you guys buying your amps based on spec sheets, Dean's link is a must read and will spare you from buying the wrong amp! However, for the people who LISTEN to actual music on their speakers, here's what THAT review had to say about the amp during LISTENING tests. Quote: " After some critical listening evaluationsand many more hours of sheer musical magicI've become convinced that single-ended tube amplifiers sound fabulous in spite of their distortion, not because of it." Quote:" It was unmistakable, however, that the 300SEI communicated the music in a way I'd never experienced before. There were an immediacy and a palpability to the sound that were breathtaking. I don't mean a sonic immediacy, such as a forward character, but a musical immediacy that riveted my attention on the music. On the superb new classical-guitar duo Baroque Inventions (Dorian DOR-90209), for example, I had the distinct impression of sitting in front of the two guitarists in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The 300SEI benefited from the low playback level called for by the instrumentation, producing a realistic level with this small-scale music." Quote:"This liquidity and lack of electronic artifact produced a relaxation and intimacy with the music that made me want to play records and CDs long into the night. In fact, I spent night after night totally immersed in the musical experience provided by the 300SEI and the Compositions." Quote: "Instrumental timbre sounded astonishingly reala quality most apparent on violin. When you hear violins in a concert hall, they're never shrill, screechy, or strident. So it was with the 300SEI, which reproduced solo and massed violins with a warmth and beauty unmatched by any electronics I've had in my system. Similarly, the 300SEI's rendering of the human voice was glorious. The amplifier restored the human quality to vocals, making them more lifelike, present, palpable, and expressive. Listen to Doug MacLeod's Come to Find (AudioQuest AQ-CD1027) through the 300SEI to hear this presence and directness of expression I'm describing. The 300SEI's portrayal of the harmonic structure of instruments and voices just sounded more like the real thing, with less of the mechanical, synthetic sound we've assumed has been inherent in music reproduction." I think it's fair to say, he liked the sound of it. The conclusion of the measurements section: I can easily imagine the non-listening audio-engineering community looking at these measurement results and laughing at audiophiles who must "like the sound of distortion." But after close critical scrutinyboth in the listening room and the test labI'm convinced that the 300SEI doesn't harm the signal in some of the ways push-pull amplifiers do, and that what the 300SEI does right is beyond the ability of today's traditional measurements to quantify. Further, I didn't enjoy the 300SEI so much musically merely because it introduced frequency-response deviations and added lots of low-order harmonic distortion. Instead, the 300SEI's fundamental musical rightness overcame its limitations.Robert Harley

Here we go again...... eh...whatta expect from a guy who uses a diagram of a ****** for an avatar. (Is there really a speaker in there?) : -)

If you get down to Chicago, let me know. I don't have any Klipsch in the house (feel free to bring yours!), but you can hear some Wright Sound 2a3 SET amps on single driver speakers (PHY-hp based).

v

Nice!

Oldtimer - Thanks - Good to be seen. Been crazy round my life lately with a new job and new kid etc...

Disclaimer - Broad statement to follow....I think you can do it - An all-American system, all components, a soup to nuts approach - but I don't think that you can do it cheaply. Due to the domestic high cost of manufacturing these low sales volume items, for a good quality, all-American 2-channel system, I think you will be looking at smaller manufacturers and relatively high prices.

I guess. Or you could have given the original poster all of the information that he requested including proof of shipping so that there would be no reason for him to doubt you. THAT would have prevented this situation from turing into a thread on the Klipsch forum. I'm neither doubting nor accepting your version of the events. My point is simple: When you have a customer who is out ANY amount of money, and especially one who is in for 3K+, you have a duty to inform the customer of exactly what is going on with the product. No exceptions.

Forgot to mention Quicksilver.

Here are a few US audio companies or builders manufacturing tube gear: Manley Labs, Cary Audio, Wright Sound, Fi (Don Garber) (all amps are SET), Wavelength (also all SET) Bottlehead, (SET and you build it yourself), Mapletree Audio, VTL, Audio Research (I think). In addition to Craig (NOSvalves), there are plenty of other guys who built semi-custom and really nice gear like: Cyrus Brenneman, Jeffrey Jackson at Experience Music, Don Allen (check the Audio Asylum for contact info). On the used front, if you are into SET, you can look for Welborne gear. I'm sure there are plenty more. I seriously doubt that all components in this gear will come from the US, but you never know... Maybe Manley; I think they do alot of in-house manufacturing of caps, transformers, etc.

Anyone have any tips to help restore walnut veneer that has faded and now looks more like cherry?

What is that price range, again? Integrated, I'm assuming? Let me know.

Or call these guys: http://www.jamminjersey.com/speakers.php

I would post this question at the High Efficiency Asylum over at Audio Asylum.

I had the 202a and 302b. Nice amps, both of 'em. I used them on Cornwalls and never found the bass to be lacking. IMO, however, the Cornwall / el34 combination is not ever going to produce tight bass. Low enough, yes, perhaps, and you may like the sound, but I found it to be a bit loose. It's a nice way to get into tubes. I had these with a Scott 299b. I went back to Jolida after getting tired of dealing with the problems of vintage components. Disclaimer: I never had the 299b updated by an experienced tech like Craig AND I had to fix loose wiring on a tube base of the brand new Jolida 302b. Good luck.

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?anlgcart&1207307088

Yes - Try the audio only mode. I'd be interested to know what you think, if anything, of the difference.

Very nice! I've heard nothing but good things about the Allen amps. A 45 amp in the right environment can be really nice. Ron Welborne, on the other hand...bad bad man. Nice amps though, can't argue that.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who recently picked up an oppo. Any reports? Good/bad/neither??

Agreed on the use of the Audio Only mode. I also am having no problems with hum, but I have it sunk in the 2 channel system with shielded IC's as opposed to in the HT. I AM having a hell of a lot of fun with the oppo, though.

*cough* ((mac)) *cough*

Good looking pics...thanks for posting those and thanks for all of your recent efforts in general. As to the speakers themselves, it appears that I am in the minority, but, yuck. The look nice enough from the side on those side rear angles - attractive woodwork and all - but I just cannot wrap my eyes around the change of the veneer grain between the front and the sides. Coupled with the relatively clumsy looking combination of round drivers and square tweeter and...well...yuck to these eyes.

oh come on...I'm not sure anybody would claim it is perfect. It is, however, really great for the price. Hell - it costs less than 7 days of parking for me.

My car read a high of 68 today in the city. !!68!!

I'm pretty sure I do, Joe...pulled it out of my trunk not that long ago. Email me.