Interesting read on AES/Engineering observations of tubes and transistors
- Thread starter LL21
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Hopefully you are not attributing that statement to me. Although for some circuit designs in some systems that is probably true. Not the rule IME.
Not sure why everything lately has to devolve into completely subjective vs. objective viewpoints like it's all black and white. Perhaps I misunderstood your intent; if so, my apologies to you sir, although the general atmosphere seems to be more combative around here.
Not sure why everything lately has to devolve into completely subjective vs. objective viewpoints like it's all black and white. Perhaps I misunderstood your intent; if so, my apologies to you sir, although the general atmosphere seems to be more combative around here.
Thanks! Interesting especially considering the source. For preamps often but not always true IME; not as often for power amps since tube circuits tend to be more load-sensitive. I suspect it revolves around the definition of "correctly designed".
Triodes are indeed some of the most linear devices around, and as Don points out, so are some of the MOSFETs and FETs. The high distortion of an SET is something that really should not be experienced if set up right (if you will pardon the pun- 'set' up right??)... which most are not. You really are not hearing what an SET does unless the speaker has enough efficiency to prevent you from ever needing more than about 20% of full power. This really keeps the distortion and especially the higher orders in check!
I wonder why nobody has made a single-ended pure class-A amplifier using transistors? A big power FET would seem a good candidate to compete favorably with SET amps. Not enough market demand, doesn't have the tube mystic,...?
I thought some (not all but a few of the ones below 20w) of the Nelson Pass First Watt amps were single ended pure class-A using transistors; they are very well respected "kitchen" products by those that heard them - definitely would be on my radar if I lived in U.S.
Think there are a few others as well, need to mull this over to remind myself.
Cheers
Orb
Or buy First Watt; http://www.firstwatt.com/distrib.html, for the lazy ones of us 
Prices from what I remember were pretty great considering the guy behind them, although the emphasis was that these products were kitchen products, that said build is still very good and tidy from what I have read and seen in photos.
Cheers
Orb
Prices from what I remember were pretty great considering the guy behind them, although the emphasis was that these products were kitchen products, that said build is still very good and tidy from what I have read and seen in photos.
Cheers
Orb
Wow, those are pricey little buggers!
JFETs are a good choice for input devices; much, much lower LF (1/f) noise than MOSFETs. I see he's using VFETs; ironically, I "discovered" VFETs in a (Siliconix, I think) catalog and used them in a couple of amplifier designs.
JFETs are a good choice for input devices; much, much lower LF (1/f) noise than MOSFETs. I see he's using VFETs; ironically, I "discovered" VFETs in a (Siliconix, I think) catalog and used them in a couple of amplifier designs.
The SITs or the more normal First Watt designs?
The SITs are expensive as he had to pay out for the Static Induction Transistors, even he mentions it was a risk.
I always felt the other First Watt products were well priced.
And I am having problems thinking of any other modern audio manufacturers who do single ended transistor amps lol - as you say maybe the market is not fully there, although Nelson Pass does well with his First Watt (also many jump straight to his Pass Labs gear instead that has greater flexibility in system-speaker integration) so maybe some manufacturers are missing a trick.
Maybe I was originally thinking a few decades back when there were others *shrug*.
Cheers
Orb
The link just showed prices for the SIT S1 and S2. Of course, most everything seems pricey to me these days...
It has to be a niche market, not something I have researched. But, seems like something some enterprising little company could readily do. If only I had time, and money, and just a bit more interest... I wonder if I still have that old DIY amp article using VFETs (from the late 70's or early 80's).
It has to be a niche market, not something I have researched. But, seems like something some enterprising little company could readily do. If only I had time, and money, and just a bit more interest... I wonder if I still have that old DIY amp article using VFETs (from the late 70's or early 80's).
It's not that common especially in the US aside from FW but I've come across a few from Germany and Japan where horn and solid state matings are more common.
Here's one from Germany. It's a company we represent. Valvet. I've played with the 10 watter with my cousin's DB-99 Mk2. Spooky sense of space and imaging strapped to an Accuphase front end and Lamm LL2 preamp. Not as full, rich and robust as Keith's (nephilim here at WBF) ML2.1s or his 45 and 2a3 amps but pretty darned good. Great highs with eery air up top.
http://valvet.de/?page_id=2757
Thanks Jack. Cute little beasties!
You need a really good power supply with a simple single-ended circuit, seeing a trend...
You need a really good power supply with a simple single-ended circuit, seeing a trend...
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