SET amp owners thread
- Thread starter bonzo75
- Start date
One of my little babies ;-) Interstage transformer coupled.
Yours is a bit of a dream system, (perhaps two). I thought I would send along this video of a full Destination System which is similar but different. Important to note that I am in the trade and distribute Destination Audio in the US. (I have written WBF on how to notate my membership as 'trade' but as yet haven't heard back.)
Hi all
updating my SET system.
moved back from an apartment to my former house. The room is not yet decorated and fancy like the one I had a picture posted here. But the sound is much much better with the new source.
updating my SET system.
moved back from an apartment to my former house. The room is not yet decorated and fancy like the one I had a picture posted here. But the sound is much much better with the new source.
I had posted these photos in the Io phono stage forum, but they should be over here too.
Photo of one of the 1610 monoblocks. The architecture is power supply and output transformer for the 1610 tube on the lower level. The upper level is a 300B preamp/amp that drives the 1610 tube. Have had these babies over 20 years now (sacrilege in the audiophile world!). A couple years ago, they went back for new capacitors and tweaks: replaced the coax interconnect between 300B and 1610 with standard RCA connectors and cables (so I can use better cables), replaced rectifiers with dual parallel Hexfred bridge, replaced Jensen copper/oil caps with new ones, put in Cardas Teflon coupling cap. I have also replaced the power umbilical with a Nordost custom made set.
Link to old Stereophile review with lots of description of the amp: 1610 review
Tube set for one monoblock. The 1610 alongside the 300B shows the size difference.
Recently cleaned all the tube pins and sockets, connectors and cables to remove oxidation. This is the accumulation on just one 1610 tube.
I ordered the Psvane 845 ACME from Grant Fidelity. They should be here any day.
So far with the Shuguang C tube these amps fed by my First Sound Mark 3 SI duel mono preamp into my PAP Trio 15 Horn are shockingly good. Best amps that have ever been in my house, matched with these speakers. This is the best system I have had in my house overall. The 22 watts blends beautiful with the Trio 15 horn. They lack nothing and bring the most realistic and natural life I have heard. I pretty much like my system more than most any I have heard. For me and my room. Others have more power and bass. Maybe even able to hear more super subtle details. But that does not mean I am lacking in detail. It has as much as I need. I was playing a very familiar to me record last night. Mastered and pressed in 1972. On one song I could hear the record of the tape stop before the needle left the groove. Its highly resolving. Just some others are a tad more so.
What mine has is a magic realism. Its correct. It sounds like the real thing. Even my wife was sitting with me the other night and said, "this sound really good". And in my opinion it presents it better than most any other on Jazz, Classical, Vocal etc. Even rock is over the top good. All it lacks is that gut punch umph certain ported boxed speakers give with huge SS power amps. But those systems usually give up what I am looking for. And what I want is purity. Natural tone. And right now that is exactly what I am hearing.
So far with the Shuguang C tube these amps fed by my First Sound Mark 3 SI duel mono preamp into my PAP Trio 15 Horn are shockingly good. Best amps that have ever been in my house, matched with these speakers. This is the best system I have had in my house overall. The 22 watts blends beautiful with the Trio 15 horn. They lack nothing and bring the most realistic and natural life I have heard. I pretty much like my system more than most any I have heard. For me and my room. Others have more power and bass. Maybe even able to hear more super subtle details. But that does not mean I am lacking in detail. It has as much as I need. I was playing a very familiar to me record last night. Mastered and pressed in 1972. On one song I could hear the record of the tape stop before the needle left the groove. Its highly resolving. Just some others are a tad more so.
What mine has is a magic realism. Its correct. It sounds like the real thing. Even my wife was sitting with me the other night and said, "this sound really good". And in my opinion it presents it better than most any other on Jazz, Classical, Vocal etc. Even rock is over the top good. All it lacks is that gut punch umph certain ported boxed speakers give with huge SS power amps. But those systems usually give up what I am looking for. And what I want is purity. Natural tone. And right now that is exactly what I am hearing.
Not mine (yet, working on it).
I honestly can say, after living with a pair of Avantgarde Acoustics Trio and an original Kondo made Audio Note Kageki for some 8 years, this is far the most entertaining, emotionally involving and lifelike triode tube amplification I have ever tried. It just projects the music and does not matter what kind of source you are using. Finds the music in the pits, and in vinyl and in files, streaming too.
www.clarinetaudio.com
I honestly can say, after living with a pair of Avantgarde Acoustics Trio and an original Kondo made Audio Note Kageki for some 8 years, this is far the most entertaining, emotionally involving and lifelike triode tube amplification I have ever tried. It just projects the music and does not matter what kind of source you are using. Finds the music in the pits, and in vinyl and in files, streaming too.
Where Every Note Matters | Clarinet Audio Design
• Clarinet Audio Design specialise in crafting handmade vacuum-tube audio amplifiers and devices that elevate your music listening experience at home. We strive to create tools that faithfully reproduce the artist's intention, capturing every emotions and nuance of the performance with a sense...
www.clarinetaudio.com
Now this is a speaker I am very interested in - every coax based speaker I have heard has nailed the tweeter/midrange balance better than any other box speaker I have listened to. Look forward to reading a review of the Athos...
Agree, the Athos 10&12 are more the successor of the old Monitor series and they are very SET friendly!
Thank you, I've been intending to try them for ages. I'll send off for some ready for the New Year.
Advice: do not push them to their limit. Use them only up to 50-60% of it. Will work much better this way.
Usually you don't want to use more than about 20-25% of full power, so as to avoid the distortion that causes any SET to sound 'dynamic'.
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