Are Low Power Tube Amps Worth The Troubl

3chihuahuas: There is something else in regard to horn speakers that I would like to mention (since you may be looking into them). From my experience, "most" horn speakers require that you do not sit very close to them, to get the best sound. I am sure that others may disagree with this general statement, but I feel that this is "one" of the reasons that many people do not like their sound (they auditioned the speakers while sitting too close). I don't have an exact distance or anything nuts like that but off the top of my head I would guess at least 10-12 feet and even further might be better, depending on the setup (for instance I have heard large/huge vintage horn speakers sound great to super from 20 feet or so in larger rooms).

Stokjoc: I use an Audion Silver Night 300B stereo amp with a pair of Reynaud Twins MKII in a room that is approx. 18' x 23', with very good results. A smaller room would be even better as I have tried this as well. The Audion is not rolled off at the frequency extremes, has very little 2nd order harmonic distortion, has extremely fast transient response and it delivers a real 7.5 watts per channel at reasonable (not outrageous) distortion levels. It is also not adversely effected by 4 ohm loads. Unfortunately though it is a bit pricy ($2700 for the basic model, which I have, with a single Alps volume pot and zero switching capability) and $500 on top of that for the integrated version. An upgraded version is also available for an additional $1K. They do not come up very often on the used market, though I recently did see one for sale. Speakers may come and go in the future as budget allows, but this amp is not going anywhere. I hope to eventually retire it to a spare room (which is smaller) so that I can listen to it while working on the computer, but for now it does full duty in the living room. I personally did not care for many of the SET amps that I auditioned and will suggest that you audition before purchasing one. My complete setup is listed in the "Virtual Systems" section under my moniker (DeKay) in the event that you are curious. If you do not listen to music at headbanger levels, yes, I feel that they are worth considering, but proper system and room matching is a must. I have owned quite a bit of push/pull tube gear in the past but this is the first SET that I have owned and I have no regrets.

I had the use of one of the early versions (unpainted chassis) for a weekend and it was very impressive for ($500-$550, think that is what it sold for). The newer versions are said to be even better. It was "extremely" detailed and I would not suggest using it with mid-fi source components if you want great sound. There is a good review, by Thorston, of the "C" version at the TNT website.

Coincident has a "new" speaker at their website rated at 95 db. I would discuss it with Mr. Blume to see if he has designed it with either low powered push/pull or SET tube amps specifically in mind. There is another manufacturer, I think that their name is Swan (and not the Diva one) that makes wooden horn loaded (the bass anyway) speakers. Doug (Sedond) had given me their website once, but I lost it. Good and efficient means expensive as far as I know. It also will depend on the amp itself as some seem to have a lot more driving power than others rated at the same power output.

Dark: It was the amp, not the Twin's. I listen to full orchestra daily and the Audion 300B does not "collapse" at our regular listening level, which is plenty loud for the living room. The amp does not seem to "care" that the Reynaud's are a 4 ohm load and it has 7.5 "useable" watts per side.

Hi George, I am not familiar with the VAC. If it is a push/pull configuration though, chances are that it will not sound the same as a true SET. All of the SET's that I have auditioned sound quite different from one another (everyone needs to audition them individually), but the better ones all do have one thing in common, which is a depth and 3D effect that I have never heard with push/pull tube designs. This is what it's really all about. The problem that I had was deciding whether to work with the lower SET power, or to make a compromise and go for something push/pull (though with fat sounding tubes, such as EL34's or 300B's) and make it easier on myself by adding the extra power. There are also some hybrid designs I believe that somehow switch to push/pull when more power is needed for musical peaks. Having owned quite a few push/pull tube amps in the past, I decided to go full SET to try something new. The amp was referred to as the "new toy" for many months until I was able to get the system properly matched, because that is what the amps will sound like until you get the right combination going. Other than speaker sensitivity and impedance there are other factors (just like in any system) to consider such as the output of you preamp (or source/DAC in my case), the cabling and how it interacts, the tubes used and the room size. My particular amp is somewhere between (sound wise) that of typical 2A3 and 300B amps in that it is quite linear and detailed and it has very fast transient response. The 300B tube, itself, can actually be linear, but how it will sound depends on the design of the amp. Many designs roll off the bottom and top and let distortion run wild and this sound is generally not to my liking, but on the other hand it (this type of sound) is favored by the majority of users. The epiphany for me was when I went to audition a well setup system consisting of AR 300 mono blocks, Vandersteen 5's and top of the line AR and BAT preamps. Sources were BAT and Oracle CD players and an Oracle turntable. This was a great sounding system, but as far as the reality factor of the music went, my little budget setup crushed this system (it was no contest). The little system did not have the bass or dynamics of the big rig, but I discovered at that point (or proved to myself) that there is a lot more involved in total sound reproduction than bigger than life dynamics and bass slam. The only "major" obstacle that I see with SET's is for people who have large listening rooms and who do not like the sound of or who cannot afford the more expensive (highly rated) horn systems that are available today. There seems to be a shortage of high quality and affordable speakers that will work in this type of application. I urge anyone interested in SET's and who is willing to do the work to start by auditioning as many of them as you can, but I do not suggest purchasing one blindly (without hearing it first) due to the diversity of their sound which is dependent on both the design of the amp itself and proper system matching.