Amplifier for my Belles

[jt1stcav]

I have never auditioned the Manley amps, but owners of their Stingray and Mahi amps swear my them...Manley Labs should make your Belle Klipsch sing ever so gracefully to Bach's B Minor Mass or the grand Skinner organ at Methuen!

Glad to hear your C35 preamp is a great match to the three amps you auditioned...it's a beautiful piece in true McIntosh style.

It's amazing how a system sounds great in one room, and sounds not-so-hot in another, and how a certain component blends well with one set of equipment, but isn't quite up to the task with others. There are so many parameters with room/placement/components that will affect the overall sound of your system, and I suppose there is no clear-cut answer to achieving the once glorious sound you once had with your Klipschorns in your old home.

And sometimes it can be the least likely to succeed...I never would have guessed how a pair of overpowered Carver M-500t SS amps driving two pairs of Klipschorns in each corner of a near concert hall-sized music room (which also housed a rather large Marr & Colton residence theatre pipe organ) would have been the clearest, most accurate sounding audio system my ears have ever heard! Live-level playback of recordings of that very organ on that system in the very same room was almost indistinguishable from the actual instrument being played live (minus the fact that the recording was playing through all four Klipschorns in each corner of that massive room, as opposed to the organ, which only spoke through the front chambers). It's this level of musical perfection that I've tried to achieve with my modest, simplistic Cornwall/McIntosh SS system in my small room and near-field loudspeaker placement. I'm closest to my musical nirvana than I've ever been, and I hope you ultimately reach your musical goals as well.

Enjoy, and listen!

[mobile homeless]

Lance -

I thought you might really like the Joule Electra Stargates based on some of your decription and taste in sound. This amps offer a combination of SET like openness with OTL speed and a clarity that is hard to ignore; this is what first impressed me, even though I was expecting this from what I had read. They also offer a measure of control as you can dial in the feedback from absolutely ZERO to whatever you choose, hearing the advantage of such a choice. I personally preferred them in Parallel SET mode with either ZERO feedback or just a bit. One can even have them configured from parallel SET to PP.

They were some of the more neutral tube amps I have yet to hear, almost to a fault. Your comments really brought them back to my mind along with the memory of the day I spent with them out in a house in the foothills of the Carolina mountains. That military 6C33 Russian tube is a beast and hardy as hell (and quite large to boot).

Here is some text from Joule Electra on the Stargates:

Combining many of the exceptional characteristics of our acclaimed Joule-Electra OTLs (Output-Transformer-Less) along with the inner glow and mid-range magic of a good Single-Ended Triode amplifier (SET), the Stargates establish a new gauge of performance and value.

The Stargate uses the renowned Mu follower driver circuit used in the Joule OTLs and features the same awesome 6C33 Russian triode in the power position; but instead of adding power tubes in parallel, like the OTLs, to achieve the correct output impedance, a specifically designed transformer is used for coupling the amp to the loudspeaker. The low plate resistance of the 6C33 power tube allows a very low primary impedance and a low turns ratio to be implemented in the transformer. The resulting transformer is a tightly coupled primary to secondary design that uses very large copper wire capable of carrying large amounts of current. The Stargates weigh 45 lbs. and their construction is rock solid. The amplifier design is simple, elegant and robust endowing the Stargate with a performance envelope other medium power tube amplifiers can only envy.

The innovation of building the Stargate in a parallel single-ended configuration results in an amplifier that accesses a big chunk of the OTL magic. Possessing a large measure of the OTLs speed, transparency and articulate directness along with the beguiling mid-range and harmonic expression that is SET-like, the Stargate is a realization of disparate tendencies into a coherent sonic reality. The high frequency reproduction is airy, open, and grainless with nary a ragged edge anywhere to be found. The Stargates are not euphonic or colored. The music comes through directly and honestly. This quality promotes involvement in the communicative power of music. In SET terms the Stargates are extremely powerful, allowing them to interact successfully with a wide variety of loudspeakers. The Stargates effortless full class A power delivery makes it sound like a bigger amplifier than it is. It brings honest dimension and life to music when coupled to an appropriate loudspeaker.

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If anything, I felt the Stargates were incredibly transparent and lightning fast while still retaining some tube-like tonality. Ultimately, I might side with a lower power SET amp but these hefty monoblocks would float many a boat for a long while to come. I think you would be more than happy here and cant see you regretting the decision one bit.

- kelly

[Deang]

Yikes, that's a lot of money for a pair of amps that don't use any more parts than a toaster oven. Still, pretty neat stuff there. I wonder how the Apollos would have measured against these.

[mobile homeless]

Well, the output transformer alone weighs in at a whopping TWENTY-FIVE pounds! These amps are quite a bit different from trying to wring the last bit from the circuit Ron used. The tubes and circuit are completely different and these amps almost feel like they are coasting along. If it were me, I would probably side with these over the other options listed from Manley but that is just conjecture.

kh