What's your OTL tube amp experience and suggestion?


Are OTL amps in general much less reliable due to their nature, or due to the implementation quality, or both?

Perhaps this has been discussed a zillion times in the past.   Perhaps, however, makers have now improve on past experience?  So it could be worth re-visiting.

My past encounters with OTL tube amps are among the most negative: Wonderful (but never great) sound during the brief period that they work.  Otherwise, major fire hazard.  Overheating, red hot plates, sparks, consistently toasted fuses, burning smell, you name it.  My past OTL amps are like crying babies on an changing table - don't you ever walk away from an arm's distance.   The used market seem to reflect such as well --- way more 'as-is for parts' or 'totally refurbished' units than reliable 'used' units that rarely need service.

Beg your pardon if it's just my poor judgement that keep getting the lemons.   What's your experience, and tips to keep OTL amps up and running happily?


bsimpson
" What's your OTL tube amp experience"

Try not to get to close when you turn it on. 
The only OTL other than an Atma-Sphere I would own would be the Counterpoint SA-4, designed by Roger Modjeski of Music Reference. One advantage of the SA-4 is it's lower output impedance, providing more predictable frequency response (read John Atkinson's tube amp test results and his comments on the subject---a major tube-amp factor ignored by many owners).