You can get big power SET's, but you'll pay a hefty price for them. All are of the parallel single ended design you mentioned. KR's various manifestations of the Kronzilla using the 1610 output tube can produce a lot of power, as does the Cary 1610. MastersounD's Evolution 845 makes 55 wpc. Their PF 100 Limited pumps out 117 wpc using a slew of 845 tubes. Don't ask how much these amps cost- it will make your skin crawl. But those amps are out there if you can afford them.
Tube Single Ended Triode Questions??
Why can't SETs be built with more power and able to drive a bigger range of speakers? I know the 300B tube can goto 10 Watts or so, and the 2A3 in only 2W, but why can't they do an amp that is like "single ended parallel" with several amp stages in parallel? Or, why can't tubes be used like EL34, 6550 and KT88s (I guess these are known as power tetrodes) and make higher power SE amps? I guess the idea behind SETs is to avoid splitting the siginal into push-pull and they are class A, but you give up a little S/N ratio with a SE circuit - is this correct? Are some tubes too noisy to run single ended, or can only a portion of a KT88 be used in SE mode?
Also, the output transformers- is this really what seperates okay from great SETs? Are quality transformers what makes them so expensive for what appears to be a very small parts count?
I have some question for latter about SE -vs- Balanced preamps too - is it a simialar trade off to SE/BAL amps, but I will save that for latter.
Also, the output transformers- is this really what seperates okay from great SETs? Are quality transformers what makes them so expensive for what appears to be a very small parts count?
I have some question for latter about SE -vs- Balanced preamps too - is it a simialar trade off to SE/BAL amps, but I will save that for latter.