The SF Power 3 literally stinks. READ ON: I am not talking about the sound, but they give out such an unpleasant burning carbon smell and heat up my room so much I had to sell them. I made sure the biasing was correct and asked SF for advice and here is their answer: -The only suggestion that I can give to you is to try to ventilate your room better. Either that, or give up and buy a transistor amplifier. Your Power-3's have 16 x 6550Cs, 8 x 6922s, and 4 x 5687s vacuum tubes; of course they are going to get hot! As long as they sound fine, then it is perfectly normal for them to 'get not' and even give off the scent of burning carbon. This heat problem never happened with my ARC VT-200 or pair of Classic 150. Now about the sound: I never compared my VT-200 and CL150 with the Power 3s side byt side but I compared them with my Levinson 333 and decided to give up the Power 3 as I find the dynamic contrast just like what the Stereophile review says. The Levinson, though a lot darker, has better dynamic contrast and of course bass slam. I gave up the Power 3 more for practical (heat) reasons more than sound. As far as I remember, the soundstage of the POwer 3 is open but the music lacks body compared with my ARC tube amps.
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