texas42 Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 SETs with the RF-7s reproduce female vocals with astonishing quality. Wardsweb and I were listening to Linda Ronstadt (with Nelson Riddle and Orchestra- Round Midnight CD) and to Loreena McKennitt (The Mask and Mirror) and it was like they were in the same room. I would use a different amp to "rock out" or for deep bass as that is not the forte' of the a low wattage SET amp. Definitely an issue of quality over quantity with these. Just my two cents... Dave ---------------- On 10/3/2004 6:10:42 AM nblis wrote: Wardsweb: That's a really nice setup. What kind of music do you listen to? I'm interested in moving to a SET amp and Klipsch speakers, but I'm wondering if the RF-7 (or Cornwalls or Fortes) have problems reproducing female vocals? In addition, I am wondering if such a setup (say 2a3 with the RF-7) could handle something with a lot of bass? I listen to stuff from classical (Bach organ) to rock!!!! Any thoughts would be appreciated. Noel ---------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wardsweb Posted October 3, 2004 Author Share Posted October 3, 2004 I must concur. Due to the low power nature of the 2A3 SET amp, high SPL low frequencies are not obtainable. Not that the speakers can't reproduce it, but that moving enough air requires more power. An option for having your cake and eat it to, would be to add a powered subwoofer to the mix. I prefer not to do this. As stated above, quality normal listening level music is what I'm after and not quantity. If I want to rock the world I use the system in the den that uses two BassMaxx B1 bass horns with 18" McCauley 6174 drivers and bucket loads of solid state power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 With the RF-7, you want a 15 ohm resistor in parallel with the amp's 4 ohm taps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 Maybe try the blocking the port of the RF-7? It may sound worse or maybe not, who knows..... Maybe more or less the RF-7's woofers are (aligned?) for SS state amplifiers with a higher damping factor in mind? My audio friend and I want to build a little two-way or a smaller floorstander of some sort using some reasonably nice 8 inch aluminum cone woofers(Vifa I guess). He has Scan-Speak 9300's or something, I have the Usher Taiwan scan-speak copy of around the 9500.(Not bad dome tweeters at all, very smooth IMO.) We were trying to find out what would be the proper cabinet size for these woofers to sound decent. Enclosures of various volumes where scrounged up and auditioned. A 2A3 SET amp was used. From what data gathered for the Vifa's or whatever, they should do well with three fourth's of a foot internal volume, or around a foot ported. A enclosure of that size was tried. It was just a quickie thing, existing ports where used or blocked. So vent tuning, etc, was not optimum, with the woofers auditioned full-range. We figured punchy bass in a 3/4th's of a foot sealed enclosure. The bass was light, too light, with decent midrange. Ported wasn't much better. The data calling for smallish enclosure size was concluded (or theory thought) with Solid-State amplifiers and the higher damping factors in mind. We tried a foot and half internal volume box with the port blocked or sealed. Bass was better, but not optimum by no means. Level-wise, the 8 incher matched the 12" woofer in a JBL(L-166?), but the depth wasn't there, and the tone wasn't nuthin' special.... We still want to try smaller enclosure sizes and roll the woofers off at 50 Hz. He wants to use his for HT with a sub, and I can do the same with 2 channel music. Tone-wise, these 8 inch woofers didn't float our boat. They were smooth, not ragged or peaky, but pretty much just kinda there. A 10 inch Lafayette/Criterion 100B woofer in a four foot vented box works for a 2A3 amp if you want a little woofer that can do music with a low watt amp with lower damping. My JBL D-208's had a real nice sound, but the enclosures are less than optimum, ported full-range. The bass was Ok, could be better in a proper cab, but the midrange was really nice. Something about raising the QTS of a woofer for amplifiers with lower damping factors? I dunno... A resistor works also... Babble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nblis Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Wardsweb and Texas: Thanks for the information. I think I can live with the quality. The 2a3 and rf-7 make an interesting combination. I may give this a try. Noel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickieheinz Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 How does the 2a3 SET sound compared to push pull tubes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 ---------------- On 10/4/2004 9:46:28 AM Rickieheinz wrote: How does the 2a3 SET sound compared to push pull tubes? ---------------- Depends on who you ask..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Depends on what Push Pull compared to what SET ! There is no answer that will honestly be correct. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texas42 Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Well, I ended up buying Wardsweb's 2A3 SET Bottlehead Paramours as after extended auditioning, I found I simply could not return them! Will post impressions of them vs. my Scott 299B once I get it back from Craig at NOSValves. I'm curious of the differences of a push/pull tube amp vs. an SET on different types of music. Half the fun is finding out... Regards, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Disregard my long blathering post about 4 up. The little bookshelf idea has been aborted. I have a pair of Fostex L-475 15" 8 ohm woofers, alnico, cloth surrounds, 96, 97 DB sensitivity. A pair of JBL signature D-208's, and a pair of older flat back JBL 075's. I want to attempt a two-way, with the 075's for a helper tweeter.(Or no tweeter, or try others....) I have a Cornwall on it's side with a Fostex 15" woofer mounted inside. The midhorn and tweeter are unhooked, just using the woofer section of the network. (which I think is at 600 Hz?) The Cornwall cabinet is about the proper internal volume for the Fostex L-475, though the porting is probably not optimum. I need to run some sweeps.... The JBL D-208 is in a vented 2 foot enclosure(not optimum either), sitting on top of the side of the Cornwall, running full-range for now. With the JBL 075 capped off up there for little more air I suppose. Everthing is vertical aligned as much as possible... The speakers are in their own enclosures so I can move them back and forth, same with the tweeter. It will take some X-over noodling and cabinet tuning, but I like what I hear so far. The D-208 has some nice midrange, IMO. More Blather..... Nice 2A3 amps Dave. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Folks, It's too bad we have become too "shell shocked" by past arguments to provide an opinion to someone about the differences between SET and PP amplifiers. Rickie, While you must take into account a variety of environmental factors (your room, your taste in music, every other component in your system) there are some general observations that can be made IMHO: SET: SET is usually the lower powered topology of the two, what does one get in return for accpeting the limitations of less power? Some would say a clearer window on the music, more immediacy, snap. Many would also say a SET amp adds some meat, flesh, substance to the music (perhaps due to some tube bloat, matter of opinion). Many would claim that it has a very clean and smooth treble end, cymbals can sound ravishing on a SET. Lastly many find that SET makes music for them more "real" people floating in the room in front of you, etc. Typical low powered SETs MUST be used with extremely efficient amps, if you are belwo 98db/m forget them IMHO. PP: PP is usually the higher powered of the two, It rewards us with more punch in the low end, some would say more exntension down below as well. It usually has a nice midrange bloat, a warmth in the mids and lows (I like the tube bloat and am proud of it!) with good punch. PP amps do the PRAT thing very well (forgive the use of a magazine word but it seems appropriate) they jump with the music and can keep up when it gets dense, hard and loud. PP amp owners like that they can get a great tube sound AND play loud rock when they get the itch. PP tube amps can be used with a wide variety of speakers without negative interactions with the speakers. Rickie, that should get you started, I hope that people DO decide to chime in on what the differences are, in thier opinions, since that is how we learn from each other. hope that helps a bit. warm regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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