SET the best?

SET the best? Is SET amplification where we should all end up? I keep reading posts where people tell of their journeys from plenty power to micro power, and how amazing SET amplification is 45 set 211 set 845 set otl, and usually, ....with the right speaker. I have yet to read of anyone who has gone the other direction from SET, to High watt beast class A amps or others. If your speakers can be driven by minimal wattage, is this the most realistic, natural sound we can achieve? versus say, 86db sensitive speakers and a 1000w amp? Is the end result solely based on speaker pairing? circuit? tubes? I am in the process of changing my direction in my search for realistic sound, just because, and wondering if this really is the best direction to be going. From what I have been reading I think it may be. What do we get with SET? What do we give up? What’s you favorite color? hanaleimike ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Answer: Yes,

Let me share My tech builds a UX250 tube SET amp, I borrowed it due to my Jadis Defy needing tubes, and that will be some months. I borrowed it some months back and was not so impressed,,, He reloaned it again, and this time one channel stoped playing ’He saw the 2 issues, 1 which was a cap was not soldered at one end. Now running full mode,. WOWWW Factor high. NOw I finally **get** what is all this SET Magic.

. However, the speaker makes the difference. as we all know, speakers are everything I have the DLVX8 about to make a dual FR addinga DLVX6. So like all light jazz, classical chamber the music floats across the room, the speakers completely disappear. Its just unreal, so effortless. SET + High end FR is what jazz fans draems are made of. I have not tried out full orch swing blues , like Gatemouth Mouth Brown/Gateswings.

With light jazz, chamber classical , the musical image is just pure magic. SET + FR = Musical Magical wonderland. Jazz fans take note.

Your xover speakers,, ain’t cutting it. You have no idea what you are missing out with your PP/xover setup.

philjolet’s avatar philjolet2,302 posts 11-01-2009 7:49am I like SET but you will never resolve this with a post here on Agon because too many disagree. You can not get people to agree on SS or tube as the best let alone SET tubes which can have limited bass control (compared to SS especially) and only drive a handful of speakers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yes the ancient discussion of SS vs Tube has not been settled. SET takes the tube experience to a whole new level,,.I should say, and forgot,, my tech built his UX250 with pure colbalt out trans, and that also may have added to the magic of SET. Colbalt trans are like $1000+ each and are not in current production.

And yes with SET you can not use xover type speakers.

Speakers are  critical,

Linear + Linear = SET magic.

So your choices are horns or FR.

I can listen to piano on my iPod earphones which definitely don’t go as low as 27.5Hz, but I can still "hear" bass notes on the piano ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes Although my FR specs say 40hz. lets say bass guitar riff, bass drums are hitting fq’s below that mark, Still you are hearing bass/kettle drums, maybe not as deep as say a 10 inch woofer, = You just don’t miss out on bass.

FR play bass just like Wilson’s Monolithic towers with dual 10 inch woofers,,just not as deep.

As I’ve said before, all types of tube amps can sound great, or less than great, depending on specific implementation and personal taste.  My favorite amp is a custom-built 35-watt OTL, my second favorite is a pushpull 252 tube amp, and the third favorite is a parallel SET design.  All of these can handle reasonably efficient speakers that are easy loads; there is no reason to exclude multi-way speakers from consideration.  Of my own amps (two pushpull, one SET), my pushpull 349-tube amp is my favorite—it is around a 5.5 watt amp, and it powers a three-way horn-based system.