High powered point to point tube amp?


Are there any manufacturers making high powered (250 wpc+) tube amps using point-to-point wiring? I have speakers that drop to 1.8 Ohm in the bass and am looking for an appropriate tube amp to drive them in a large room.

Quicksilver uses point-to-point wiring, but their largest amps are not powerful enough.

I want to limit my search to preferably US made, high powered, point-to-point wired amps. I am aware of all of the other US made high powered tube amp options available such as ARC, VTL, Rogue, BAT, Manley, etc.

Thanks,

Dave
tricon_dave

Showing 1 response by raquel

While superb in build quality and sound, almost all Atma-sphere amps are output-transformerless and are thus intended to be paired with benign impedance loads - I do not know what the above poster was thinking.

The easy answer to your question is any of the CAT monoblocks. They have the best output transformers and stiffest power supplies of any tube amp I am aware of. They were designed to drive the mbl 101E, which is 83 db. efficient and features outrageously tough impedances. The original version, the JL-1, was all point-to-point wired and massively overbuilt, especially the $50,000 JL-1 Limited Edition version, which had crazy parts quality. Rated at only 100 watts per channel, they sounded like a 500 wpc Krell and could probably power an arc welder. Each monoblock weighed 192 lbs., 55 lbs. of which was the outrageous output transformers. The later version, the JL-3, uses circuit boards, as does the stereo version, the JL-2, but they are still great amps.

There have only been a small handful of regular production tube amps that have output transformers and power supplies of the quality required to properly drive low impedance loud speakers: the above described CAT's, the Air Tight Reference monoblocks (also $50,000), and some of the Audio Valve amps are in this rarefied category. The VAC Renaissance 140/140's also have excellent output transformers and can drive very low impedance speakers. Sound by Singer in Manhattan was unable to drive the big Pipedreams with the VTL MB 750 mono's, but had no trouble driving that speaker with the 65 watt/channel VAC Renaissance 70/70. The issue is not watts per channel, but the quality of the transformers and power supplies. The VAC Renaissance, the CAT's, the Air Tights and the Audio Valves are all point-to-point hand-wired, incidentally.

Putting aside whether they can drive low-impedance speakers, my personal opinion is that the vast majority of high-powered tube amps (and high-powered solid-state amps, come to think of it) sound like shit because they require some degree of negative feedback to control to circuit. With all of those tubes, they also require too much TLC and tend to heat up listening rooms. The safer and easier route is very high-quality solid-state, like the darTZeel, which can drive low impedances, yet retains ease of ownership and superior sound quality.