my OTL experience is now more than 10 years ago, but the OTL magic is still a guiding light in my sonic compass.
in 2001 i was moving away from Wilson WP6’s and top level Mark Levinson #32 and #33 mono blocks. i looking for a more involving and musical presentation and purchased Kharma Exquisite Reference 1D speakers and starting searching for an amp to go with it. tried a few and then had the opportunity to demo the Atma=sphere MA2 Mk2.2’s in my room and really liked it. i was ready to pull the trigger but then had another opportunity to try the Tenor 75 watt OTL mono blocks. ok; here was a modestly powerful amplifier but this one had a fire in the mid range and was linear top and bottom. it seemed like a direct connection to the music. so i purchased the Tenors and had a 3 year love affair.
like some other love affairs, it was painful too. the darn Tenor would explode on a regular basis and take out drivers in the Kharma’s. that direct sound and lack of transformers did have it’s dark side. so I ended my love affair.....but looked around for a something else that could be similar but was reliable.
i ended up with darTZeel NHB-108 solid state which combined that fire in the mid range and transparency of the Tenors, but also had the solid state attributes of lower noise, more authority, and reliability.
back to the Tenor OTL’s; eventually Tenor went bankrupt; but the good news is that another group bought the assets and raised it from the dead, and the 75 watt Tenor OTL’s got their design cleaned up and did become reliable......and i would strongly recommend a set if you can find one (and make sure it was built after 2005 or upgraded.
it’s a magical amplifier. or get a darTZeel solid state and never look back. i did.