OTL or SET? Differences?


With my limited knowledge, I know that OTL is transformerless and SET is single-ended. But what are the main advantages and disadvantages of these two designs? How to choose matching speakers for these two different designs?

Currently I have an Atma-Sphere OTL amplifier.

Thanks in advance!

Otto
yu11375

Showing 1 response by chazzbo

Try sopme other speakers.Thiels are way to brite and I like a brite sound.Not sure if you are commited to them that one model is more and offender than another but have thought read the best speaker they made was the CS6.I say difernt because I knwo that my freind had CS 7's (huge with cement bafles-what a bitch egtinbg those to a secopnd floor!!)If going SET I see there are some used Von Schweikert DB99 derived fromsome aburdly priced $60K speaker used for $10K (ouch!).But they got very good reviews have bass covered by 300 wat bass amp but deliver 99DB from only one watt!!!But the price and size maybe more suited for main system not a smaller chamber one.
Me I've thought of inexpensive Omega's for bedroom system with maybe a Fi using low power 2A3 while my main rig will be high powered SS or higher powered tubes (wish I never sold that Mesa Baron.While not SET you could swith it's 12 tubes in banks of four from pentode to triode "on the fly" suiting the amp to different music geting 60/90/120 in full pentode you selected.
I bought a pair of German Odeon Tosca's which is a semi horn and dealer sold Atmasphere and said he had many happy customers match them up (horns like wonderfull Avantegardes and others tend to be very efficinet and might be worth hearing but again size/expense of many may not suit and subs can be difficult.Only REL and other subs which are VERY fast usually using multiple small drivers can even try to blend with horns,electrostsic or planar speakers like Maggie.Everything sub wise is mainly to sluggish.
Not fammilar with sound of OTL but from above even though I like dynamics and speed sounds like I'd prefer the SET sound.Nothing beats lot's of EL34 power for a great midrange in medium efficncy and B300,2A3,845 etc in high effciency speakers.
Chazzbo