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 delancey

I owned both the Lamm ML2 (SET) and the Tenor 75wi (OTL) for a while. I compared the amps with many speakers I had ranging from Kharma to Von Schweikert to Horns to Druids. I found the Tenors to be more sensitive to impedance and the Lamms more sensitive to sensitivity. This is by no means a scientific explination, but based on the limited combinations I've listed above. The Lamms could drive just about any speaker full range at reasonable volume levels. Based on the efficiency of the speaker, the Lamm would start to harden at higher volume levels. The Tenor however could play very loud even with inefficient speakers. However, they would loose control of the bass even at moderate volumes with speakers that had impedance dips. In general the distortion with Lamms was a hardening of the overall sound. The distoriton with Tenors was a boomy bass response. I'm not sure if this is OTL vs. SET or just the difference between Lamm and Tenor amps...hope it helps.