Atmasphere,
This is a SET appreciation thread, if you don’t appreciate SET amps how can you ‘educate’ us??
I do admit some are more resistant to learning than others. At what point did I say I don't appreciate SETs?? Please don't try to put words in my mouth.
Taking the roll as teacher in a subject that you clearly don’t believe in is wrong.
Yes, I 'rolled' right over that one... Sorry- but I
do believe what I'm saying here. Is it OK to walk the talk??
Beyond this you have a very significant commercial interest and potential for financial gain from disparaging SET amplifiers that compete directly with your products in the marketplace.
Not really. If you think I'm in audio for the money, I've news for you: I do it for fun. People that know me know I'm not motivated by money so much as enjoyment of music. We have a saying in this industry; 'if you want to make a pile of cash in high end audio, start out with a lot larger pile of cash.'
To teach in a subject that you have a clear conflict of interest in is fundamentally unethical.
I have taught full time for the last 20 years and as a qualified educator can only suggest you are completely off course in taking over a lead educator role in this particular thread.
Wait- what?? This is rubbish... I've offered information in an area in which I have a degree, expertise and experience of decades. There's a lead educator?? Is that an appointment?
All I've done here is to correct common misinformation. Here's an example: "Electronics can favor a certain kind of music, and there are certain speakers or the like that are better for rock or classical."
Its pure myth. There's no way a designer can make a speaker or amp or the like for a certain genre. If they could figure out a way to do it they'd be rich overnight. But in the last 100 years no-one has.
I'll bet someone just read what I wrote here and has issues with it. But the simple fact is that if a speaker is good for classical, it should be good for rock, folk, ethnic, jazz, electronia and so on. Same goes for amps and preamps. Can you imagine a turntable that's only good for classical??
The issue would be Ralph doesn’t think SET is fundamentally a good thing at all… but yes I’d much rather he spent his time trying to benefit SET technology instead of constantly ‘educating’ us against it.
As I mentioned prior, I've owned and built a number of SETs the early 1990s when Sound Practices (Joe Roberts) first mentioned them in his magazine. Honestly I thought he was joking at the time. There are a number of ways common SET performance can be improved; using Jack Elliano's Ultrapath circuit, direct-coupling to drive the power tube and even (horrors!) negative feedback (like you see in some Japanese designs) to improve usable power. I think its fun and I have the parts laying around so why not do it? That's the hobby of it.
The prototype I've been working on in the last year uses an OPT with the excellent waveform response (MUG for those curious). Very nice looking parts too. But like any cut-core OPT (the cut in the core to reduce saturation distortion on account of the DC current flowing through it to the output tube) the inductance at low frequencies is insufficient because of that cut core, so bass response is limited. This prototype is built for a 300b or UX-250.
I fully agree Graham. Ralph also took over my system thread for a while, infecting it by marketing his products. He claimed to be educating the readers. He finally agreed with me that my SET amps were well matched to my speakers and he thankfully moved along.
I agreed they are well matched. You're doing everything right to get the most out of an SET IMO. I did make some suggestions about possible upgrades that included SETs but you weren't interested.
I feel your pain Peter. Going into a thread dedicated to celebrating a specific type of gear (or especially into a personal system thread) and relentlessly banging away at the preferences expressed by the thread and turning what could be valuable and potentially constructive opportunities filled with helpful commentary and useful insights into constipated, entrenched battle zones is usually ultimately not a healthy thing, especially when the full subjective perspective is lost.
Or you could try listening.
Once you understand what it is that keeps tubes going for audiophiles, that opens access to how to design and build electronics to satisfy that; In effect, learning which measurements are important and which ones are not (but often have importance assigned to them).
...or maybe "Come here for education that you are STUPID for using SET!!!"
No-one has said
that so far...
