Maybe Leaving SET for Solid State because I want bass
Looking for a recommendation of an amp to power a pair of 12 in 2 way bass reflex studio monitor with 96db sensitivity. My SET amp sounds lovely and pure but is bass shy. Looking for a sweet solid state amp with some slam. I've heard my setup with a pair of Herron Monos and a Pass Sit-3. Herron had the bass but was otherwise unsatisfying. Pass was a little lean. Budget is $3-5K on the used market. Even something on the lower cost end that would give me a taste of what I'm looking for as proof of concept would be great to start out with.
Thanks in advance!
OP look into the AGD duet power amps AGD The Audion MKIII › AGD Productions I heard this driving a large floor stander in a recent audio show and man, does it move and control those large 15 inchers. GAN based amplification is breaking into high end audio gear and They are proving their worth and equaling the playing field. to be fair, listen to it first. if one needs lots of power and still has the harmonics of a tube "like" tone, then look into GAN based amps
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Tough question. The main problem with bass with tube amps, push/pull and especially SET is their high output impedance. Low output impedance helps control woofers. And the problem with output impedance is the output transformer. The tube amps I know that had relatively low output impedance(3 to 4 times lower than most tube amps) were made a couple of decades ago by a company called Melos. I saw the Stereophile unpublished bass response into a simulated speaker and it was almost undistinguishable from a solid state amp. Other plusses for the amps are high power. The stereo amps are conservatively rated at 200 watts Triode and the monoblocks 400 watts. They are rich class AB. The monoblocks were25 watts class A before going into AB so your speakers would be class A almost all the time. The problems would be working on them. They are old. Schematics don't exist although a good tech can follow the circuit. Almost unknown now they should be cheap meaning you can put money into restoration. I also recall an SET Melos rated at 70 watts but I suspect they are super rare This is just a thought by the way with some risk but with possible exceptional results. |
Interesting discussion, especially concerning SET circuit design. I will only add that in my experience: (1) solid state will offer better lows (and highs) than a comparable tube amp, but, and it is a big but, your recordings will not sound the same. Jimi Hendricks and Stevie Ray Vaughan do not sound the same with solid state amplification; it is as if they are playing different instruments. (2) Integating subwoofers into a stereo system is a non-trivial task. Several persons have given good advice on resolving this dilemma, but much like room acoustics, there is not one solution which fits all cases, just various methods and means to achieve a common goal, in my opinion. |
