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 hiradi

Hello Otto...Greetings from Australia !!!
I have tried several good Amplifiers on the Horning Alkibiades 99db,which have very deep bass and the appropiate big enclosure...Rushtons ,comments of the Atma-sphere S30 are spot on "On the flip side, the Atma-Sphere OTLs will be very neutral, very detailed, highly resolving -- in the words of a listening partner here: pristing like a clear glass onto the music. They won't make the music more beautiful, you'll simply get what's coming from your front-end source without editorial."
The Tom Evans "Soul S15" SET Cass A falls somewhere in between my current amplifier,the KR Audio Stereo Kronzilla and the Atma-sphere...The "Soul" controlled the bass on the Hornings better and being a KT88 valve,you could tweak the sound a bit...I would say it was a bit more involving,but it needed a active pre-amp ,where the Atm-sphere and KR are happy with a passive...the KR Audio Kronzilla was in another league...also many would argue that it is not a "true" Set amplifier ,as it uses,like the "Soul",a SS front end...the Kronzilla simply was a step above all of the amplifiers I have heard in control,air and musicality...the PRAT is just great...the only amplifier ,I reckon would compete ,would be the VAC or Canary 300B push/pull...hope this helps...
Regards
Helmut