NEW CHORUS 1s !! WHAT SET AMP TO GET ?

[DANOCASTER]

JUST GOT A PAIR OF CHORUS 1s AND WANT TO GET A SINGLE ENDED TUBE AMP TO DRIVE THESE- PREFERABLY AN INTEGRATED BUT I'D DO SEPERATES IF THEY WERENT TOO EXPENSIVE..ANY IDEAS ?? THIS SITE IS SO HELPFUL--AND ADDICTING !!

[SOUNDJUNKIE]

Don't know if I would use a tube integrated. Maybe a Jolida? VTL? Anthem? Golden Tube Audio? Tough to get the extremes right without spending $$, although the Golden Tube has got some bottom end. Also need to control that 15" woofer otherwise you'll need a mop to pick up that sloppy bass. You don't need a pre with a high slew rate/damping factor like you need in an amp and still get that sweeeeet mids and sparkling highs. Might try tube pre with warm ss amp...Dynaco, Anthem, Golden Tube Audio front end and Hafler DH500, Adcom GFA555, Rotel 990. These pieces can be had on the cheap. Another plus is that retubing your pre is cheaper than retubing your amp and running it will throw off less heat. What do I know?

[mobile homeless]

Well, I think it is worth doing it right if you are going to do single-ended at all. I havent always said that but really think it is probably the best thing.

In all honesty, these days I just dont think it is worth trying SET without going with some units with really good transformers and a top notch circuit. And yes, that is going to cost you a bit, but it is far better to go this route than to get something that is 70%, but misses the final bit of magic that SET can bring. And it IS a bit of magic, as no push pull amp I have ever heard delivers the wealth of detail, air, naturalness, and totally unfettered quality of an excellent SET amp into proper speakers enabling the unit to sing.

Push pull tube circuits are great. I still listen to mine every day. Literally. But when it comes down to intimate communication with the music, something that gets inside the performance in a way equaled by no other, then the single-ended triode amplifier is at the top of the list.

Yes, tubes and solid state at their best can both have the capacity to move. Yet there really is something that is completely different about properly implemented single-ended triode. Forget the hype from the Audio Press that took another five years from the first commercially introduced SET to fully catch on. I first heard a single-ended 300B amplifier back in 1990, having absolutely NO idea what it was. Indeed, as I have said in the past, I had never heard an amplifier so low in wattage(8w) and I had serious doubts as to whether it could make music at all.

Lets just say that in my over 30 years into this mess, I have never heard anything that moved me or changed my perception of reproduced music as much as that intitial exposure to the 300B in a zero negative feedback, single-ended triode configuration. I was actually SHOCKED as it sounded so natural, with so little electronic artifacts, that I sat there incredulous, unable to leave the room for over two hours! In one fell swoop, ever other amplifier I had heard from the high-end stalwarts seemed artificial and mechanical. Push pull tubes seems coarse and unrefined. I could not believe this was 8 watts as the sound was so full, rich, with life-like timbre and extension, it made the idea of watts superfluous.

Yes, I have said this before, but at times it bears repeating. Since that time, many manufacturers have jumped on the single-ended bandwagon with some entries that are quite affordable, almost bordering on "cheap." I now believe that to fully get the best from this circuit, you must at least spring for some good transformers. Also, as I have said in here time and time again, with so few parts, the quality and type can have a great inpact on the sound. People have attempted to make single-ended designs using transoformers without an air-gap, and the performance level is just not there (unless going Parafeed which is a different sound as well).

I would suggest going used for the SET route since paying new prices is unecessary. Also, many are doing single-ended amps employing pentodes wired in triode. Some of these amps are less expensive. In my listening, I have preferred the triode over the pentode wired in triode mode, however. Still, many of these tubes are far less expensive.

Many of the stalwarts of old school design that are proponents of negative feedback to lower distortion, improve bandwidth, or lower noise, fail to see some of the sonic foibles of such an implementation. While removing this feedback does make specs suffer, the sound really opens up, and in essence, actually sounds more natural with almost all siblance gone.

The problem with single-ended amplification is that it really does need proper speakers to fully bloom. Enter the Klipsch vintage horns.

I actually cant imagine using an Adcom GFA-555 or Hafler DH500 on something like a Heritage horn. Of all the type of amplification I have tried via my Cornwalls, the most natural sounding midrange and top end has been from SET amplification. While other modes of amplification will work, that special lit from within magic of the single-ended triode mated with horns is just not there. And most solid state amplification, whether fed with a tube pre or not, can enter the land of Mr. Harsh and Friends...

Good examples of set to eye or Fi, Sun, Wright Sound, Welborne Labs, Wavelength Audio, Cary, and other smaller manufacturers. Ironically enough, as I mentioned in past, the Cary amplifiers are not as well built as the some of these smaller makes. But they do have VERY nice midrange. Indeed, that orginal SET amplifier I heard was none other than the Cary Audio 300se, an amp that many find loose in the bottom with more challenging music.

kh

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Phono Linn LP-12 Vahalla / Linn Basic Plus / Sumiko Blue Point

CD Player Rega Planet

Preamp Cary Audio SLP-70 w/Phono Modified

Amplifier Welborne Labs 2A3 Moondog Monoblocks

Cable DIYCable Superlative / Twisted Cross Connect

Speaker 1977 Klipsch Cornwall I w/Alnico & Type B Crossover

system one online / alternate components / Asylum Listing f>s>

[Colin]

ditto what he said-

SET amps need to be good, meaning Paramours, Wright and Welbournes, but the sound that they make will thrill you for years, there are at least as good as the $6K Pass amp I have heard on my big old horns, if no one else says it, I will, HORNS love tubes ...

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Colin's Music System Cornwall 1s & Klipsch subs; lights out & tubes glowing!

[mobile homeless]

Colin, are you doing a review of that Pass gear for ETM?

Yeah, to be honest though, I dont think the Paramour transformers are really quite up to snuff. I mean, they are VERY good for the money. But when push comes to shove, these dont have the extension of the units with the Paraglow or even the smaller non parafeed MQ TFA-204. Have you ever condidered upgrading them? It would be rather $$$, unfortunately. Still, you would get better extension at both extremes.

kh

[Ninja Nate Z]

Hi, this is my first post, recently purchased Chorus I's from a great couple in Iowa after losing 3 ebay auctions. I'm running my Chorus' with a 14yr old Sansui B2102 amp that is extremely high current, high output, and very smooth sounding. My friend Todd borrowed me one of his Adcom GFA-555Mk2 to compare, and it is a brute, makes these things sound like there'e a subwoofer attached to 'em, but highs are skreetchy and shrill. Wondering what these small amps you guys talk about sound like compared to the beasty amps I'm running in my Home theater? Seem to be all the rage, but can they keep up when going concert volume? I don't know much about these S.E.T. Amps or others, heard the silver 7's years ago on some Chapman's up in Seattle.