XSE vs. GSXE Edcors

[bloozestringer]

Has anyone A/B'd these OPT's?

[bloozestringer]

Or maybe the better question is has anyone used the GSXE's and liked/disliked them? I just noticed they are supposed to have a little bit more at the bottom end than the XSE's.

[drj759]

I assume your question is for audio amp use and not for musical (guitar) amp use.

On an RH84 build of mine, I tried the Edcor XSE15-8-5K and the GXSE15-8-5K.

My testing is incomplete so YMMV. The following evaluation is soley based on a quick and dirty listening test. I had intended to take some measurements on each configuration but time did not permit.

I simply swapped out each transformer pair without any other modifications.

The Edcor GXSE15-8-5K was an overall good performer with a much improved bottom end compared to the Edcor XSE15-8-5K. The mids and highs of the GXSE sounded a bit muted compared to the XSE. The GXSE sounded OK, just a bit different. I don't have a frequency sweep yet to confirm if the slightly muted sound of the GXSE is due to a high frequency roll-off of the GXSE or if the XSE has a response that peaks in the higher frequencies.

I don't own any "high end" iron (anything that costs more than $100 per OPT) to compare to but I thought the GXSE was a reasonable value considering the much improved bottom end performance of the GXSE.

[bloozestringer]

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, this is for audio use. I know neither one of these are expensive by any means, but these are going into a Darling amp and I was thinking the extended low end might be beneficial, but I'm not sure it would be a good trade off if the mids and high end are affected.

[Zap]

This is interesting.... I would like to build a Darling amp as well and had wondered the same thing. I love the CXSE's used in my Simple SE, but I wasn't sure how something like that would fare in a significantly lower power amplifier. I have heard they work well in SE amps with lower power than mine (I'm running KT88 and I think the other amp was running 300B). I've also heard good things about the James DC Darling, but I believe the James are even more costly.

The Transcendar's are slightly less costly than CXSE, in between the GXSE and CXSE in size, and have received excellent reviews - I was also considering using a pair of these.

Hopefully this provides some more thoughts for discussion as I would really like to build this amp soon, but I've been lazy due to inconclusive choice of an OPT. This is especially since I've been spoiled by the CXSE that I'm used to.

[bloozestringer]

I have been contemplating the Transcendars as well, but am thinking that I might use those down the road (see may last comment).

My Darling is/will run a 5Y3GT into an LC, which then splits to a seperate LC for each channel. Driver is a 5965. I just need to get the OPT's to finish it up and tweak the PS. Overkill for a Darling I know, but I had all the parts and the rest were donated so I figured why not!

I've left enough space on the chassis to convert to a DC Double Darling down the road if I want, and will probably go ahead and add the two extra octal sockets on the chassis so I don't have to do it later.