Holy Grail of Valve Amps

[DVDHack]

Is there a design that everyone aspires to, a holy grail if you like?

[SHiFTY]

Probably a single ended 300B amp with RIDICULOUSLY expensive output transformers. And original 1950s Western Elec 300Bs.

I think most of the sound of a tube amp comes from its transformers. A decent set of transformers will give you a sublime result...

Another good example would be the Marantz valve amps, the 8b and so on... The (push pull) output trannies are huge, and highly sought after.

[SY]

OTL, with about 32 6528s in parallel. Murray Zeligman and I actually built one of these about 25 years ago (only 16 in parallel, alas), but a stereo pair would be nice.

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by DVDHack
Is there a design that everyone aspires to, a holy grail if you like?

Not really. There are many "classical" Amplifiers that are very good to excellent and many new ones that are not. The "holy Grail" depends strongly on your taste. To some it is the ANJ Ongaku / Gaku-On / Baransu / Kegon (211SE / 211PSE / 300BSE / 300BPSE) for modern or the "absolute" SE OTL, to others the WE Model 91 still others swear by MacIntosh or Marantz and others by certain Klangfilm and TAB Amplifiers. Still other would feel something like Lynn Olsosns Amity or Allan Wright's "forced symetry" differential Amplifiers to be the end it all. And then there are people who DARE offending the Tube God's by using all solid state Amplifiers.

Take your pick.

My personal "reference" in some ways is the sound of the ANJ Baransu, with old (pre 1988) WE 300B Valves with Ongaku second, but that's just me.

Sayonara

[Positron]

I built an OTL that I thought was unbelieveable, but now the PP tranny models are so good I am not sure if I would go back to the OTL. I still have it and might upgrade it sometime and do a comparison.

OTLs, as you know do require alot of power, even at idle. Mine drew 850 watts just sitting, and it could have been more if I set the idle current higher. PP is much cooler.

[SY]

In our amp, the filaments alone were putting out 500 watts of heat. Not efficient for sure!

[agent.5]

Originally posted by SY
In our amp, the filaments alone were putting out 500 watts of heat. Not efficient for sure!

You mean per channel, I suppose. Time to design some GM100 push pull, should be able to double duty as a space heater.

[SY]

Yes, per channel. We only built one channel before we ran out of tubes. The GM100 ought to work great, as long as you're in Minnesota in the winter.

[agent.5]

Originally posted by SY
Yes, per channel. We only built one channel before we ran out of tubes. The GM100 ought to work great, as long as you're in Minnesota in the winter.

I am in San Francisco, and trust me, I can use some serious heat inside the apartment today. Currently working on a 813PP with class A, CCS forced symmetry myself, and not really sure if the electric wiring of the apartment can handle my amplifier.

[Circlotron]

Originally posted by SY
In our amp, the filaments alone were putting out 500 watts of heat. Not efficient for sure!

OTL = Over The Limit.