SETs and horns are known for tone and dynamics too, but the speed and liquidity of low watt high sensitivity (120 db with 1w) is what is causing those nuances. Bill's horns are also 115 db. I do get it with 98 db Yamamura with his own matched current drive SS amp. The source makes a difference, of course, but till what level - at yours I got it most on the Strad, and AS is the most nuanced of the TTs. But moving from 46 to 211, or moving from AS to EMT (to a larger extent), all reduce the nuances. At Montesquieu, the Silvercore 20w 833c amp was more nuanced than the KR integrated 50w though the latter had some other positives. Tannoys overall less nuanced than very good horns. The Devore was most nuanced with the NAF 2a3 to show such inflections of the many amps I tried. I do not get these in cone based, SS systems, or push pull systems. Maybe the complex crossovers also cost that nuance.
The interesting thing was comparing Devore to Cessaro Wagner. The latter sounded better with more power of push pull EL34 34w compared to 300b 10w (Airtight amps). The Devore sounded better with lesser power. The lesser power increased nuance. So in the Wagner I was giving up nuance to get it to sound better, as I was increasing power, because there were other aspects such as energy and drive that were otherwise lacking. With devore energy and drive with 10w was not an issue, so the single ended, 10w could be used to increase nuance.
I did ask the General once when he was playing us some records how much of these nuances come from the linear tracker. He said most of it. I must have asked because my gut would have been telling me that, just as I heard it with the extremely small (smallest, probably ) versa dynamics LT arm at Pietro's. However, I will choose not to believe them till the General mounts for me another table with a good pivot in his room to compare.
In SS, if you use a lot of clean power, like Boulder, you do get more nuances and inflections than other SS amps, but nowhere as close.
