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Aric Audio Super 2A3 SET

It just arrived just about a week ago, but I feel inclined to write a few words about it since my level of satisfaction with this amplifier is immense. I have nothing but praise to give in regards to the level of customer service I have received starting with a curious inquiry to having the amplifier in my home. Since I'm no expert in the world of tubes, I had quite a few questions.

It started with me asking about the 2A3 amplifier listed on his webpage and Aric got back to me with a suggestion. He said he had been waiting for the next order of a 2A3 amplifier and was eager to revise the product and put some new ideas and upgrades into it.
Me being a novice only understood half of the improvements he listed, but it all sounded good to me. I told him about the 2A3 amplifier that got me into looking at a 2A3 based amp and he was very familiar with the one in question and described in detail what he would do to make his version "better". I was sold, and I pulled the trigger, and oh so happy I am that I did.

It is a dual-chassis design that has an all film-capacitor power supply with toroidal filament transformers, DC filaments using Schottky diodes, and film cathode bypass capacitors. Audyn "true copper" foil coupling caps and a choke-filtered power supply, Vishay wire-wound resistors used throughout. 6SL7 SRPP driver stage and 2A3 single-ended output stage producing 3.5 watts per channel into 8 or 16 ohms. I'm running it with the supplied rectifier tube (CBS 5U4GB) and a pair of NOS Tung-Sol 6SU7GTY "Super 6SL7" and a pair of PSVANE WR2A3.

The amp from Aric replaced my old trusty Audio Space Galaxy 88 that produced 48 wpc in ultralinear and 24 wpc in triode. My first impression was that this feels like way more power! at only 3.5 wpc. The bass is deep, tight and "meaty", I hear midbass like I never did before. It's so clear and well defined and when I turn the volume up my walls are shaking, with 3.5 watts(!). Vocals sound like they are floating around the room and with an acoustic guitar I'm just there in front of the stage. It has speed and a level of transparency that is on a completely different level compared to my old amplifier. It also has a completely dead black background.

This amplifier just plays in another league compared to my previous one. I can only recall from memory another comparison of a much more expansive 2A3 SET that got me interested in the first place, I heard it for a lengthy session at a friend of a friends house and it blew me away. This amplifier beats it if my memory serves me right.

I can't imagine a better amplifier at this price and I could use a bunch of more superlatives to describe it.
My current speakers are a pair of Zu omen plugged in on the 16 ohm taps and it seems for now to be a match made in heaven.
128x128tby

Showing 3 responses by tby

tby's avatar
tby OP
21 posts
 
Thanks for all the kind replies!


@teajay your mentions of Aric’s gear is actually how I found him in the first place. :-)

@lalitk Thanks! Interesting to hear you also switched from Audio Space. Sounds very intriguing that it will only get better from here. Amazing system btw! I am using a passive preamp called icOn4. I made an attempt of adding my office system where I use the amp to the systems page where you can find a link to it here: https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8714

@jtcf Thanks, happy to hear that. Checked out your system it looks great!
tby's avatar
tby OP
21 posts
 
@lewinskih01 The Triode Lab 2A3S-FFX was on top of my list. However, I never got in touch with them. I had previously engaged with Aric and had a very positive experience even though it did not end with a purchase at that time. In light of this I reached out and asked about his 2A3 design.
I was going to go with the 2A3S-FFX, I had heard it and I loved it. The one I had listened to with its options would cost a lot more, considering the price and what I felt being a better design I chose to go with Aric Audio. Having listened to Aric's 2A3 for hours daily since it got here I find that it has a better grip on bass and sounds more fluid, the background is also dead black, likely due to the power supply being in a separate box. Another selling point in favor of Aric for me personally was the wooden chassis options.

tby's avatar
tby OP
21 posts
 
@doni My 97dB Zu omen's are being driven just fine with it. I don't feel I lack any power.
Nice speakers btw! I had a look at them and according to https://www.audionote.co.uk/an-e-speakers the sensitivity looks to be 97.5dB ?
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