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Thought on OTL tube amps

Just curious....how do these sound/perform compared to tube amps with transformers? Why do you prefer one or the other? Any particular brands of OTL amps you would recommend listening to? You can see my system on my tag here...listen mostly to rock and roll with a smattering of jazz and a bit of classical once in a while. The next stop on my amplifier adventure is an OTL model, and I have no intention of trading it for either SET I currently have, as I'm very happy with both. One of the ways I enjoy experimenting with different "sound" is by switching up the amps. Just trying to solicit some opinions, of which I know there are many strong ones here at A-Gon. Thanks in advance!
afc

Showing 2 responses by tubegroover

tubegroover
2,320 posts
 

Jwm you mention that most OTL amps sound lean to you. Have you listened to any of the Joule Electra models? It seems that Jud Barber has somehow managed to capture the harmonic realism so apparent with most SETs without any loss of transparency, the best of both worlds.

In my experience the perceived limitations by some concerning OTLs rest elsewhere in the system providing the speaker impedance/amp are a good match. A poor recording will really highlight problems more so because of the wide bandwidth performance of OTLs.
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Maybe the acronym OTL should be changed as applied to David Berning's ZOTL amplifiers as the original ILOT design, iron less output transformer.It never ceases to amaze how this topic is continually debated after all these years. Al you REALLY need to check the archives, if you haven't already, I'm sure you'll find it quite interesting particularly the thread where Ralph and David have a lively discussion of this topic, I think you'll enjoy!

I'm not too sure David EVER called it an OTL, I believe it was Harry "Gizmo" Rosenberg that first did but I may be mistaken. One thing for sure after it was forevermore designated OTL by some, it was equally or more declared NOT by others.
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