Output Transformerless SET designs vs. "regular" ones

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Folded horns ****, I'm all about electro-stats. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Electrostats are nice...if you have the 150+W to power them correctly //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Don't get me wrong, I have a NAD 3020 and JBL 3way's, plus enough subwooferage to do some serious damage in the main HT system.

But sometimes, only a few watts is all that's needed...

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Sure it is. Tubes are deffinately a different animal.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Hey Jacky...and good tube amps out there for ~$250?? Even just a kit? Something in the ~5-9w range? Also, can just a "standard" receiver work for the input to the tube amp? How well are tubes suited to home theater use?

Thinking about picking up Adire's HE10.1 kit. I like the idea of a simple, high efficiency co-axial, and would like to power it with tubes if I do end up picking it up //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I'm a tube virgin //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/blush.gif.99bc659ee2012b7d826165e26fb5eebe.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I love that smiley //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif It's so wrong, but yet...so right //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Well, what kind of tube amps are you looking at? You could pick up a decent Magnavox console amp that uses push/pull EL84 pentodes off Ebay for that price range, but IMO, single-ended triodes are going to give you more of the "tube sound". There are SET's out there for $250, but you have to watch Audiogon and Ebay for them. Expect to get around 2 watts per channel with EL84's/6BQ5's. 5-9 watts single-ended is going to be more pricey, but push/pull can be easily done.

This guy: http://abraxasaudio.home.att.net/quicklist.html is building my next amp for around $700, but I don't know what he charges for smaller projects. A used pair of Antique Sound Labs Wave 8 monoblocks would fit your budget at around $200 for the pair, have 8 watts per channel, and give you a good taste for tubes. The only two drawbacks are that they're push/pull, and use solid-state rectifiers. But, they're a good place to start. They come up on Audiogon and Ebay every now and then.

The only problem with Adire's kit is that it uses a crossover - it would probably be cheaper to get two Fostex or similar high-efficiency full range drivers, and build a backloaded folded horn for it. No crossovers needed at all.

A standard receiver would work if it has a pre-amp output - I know my NAD does, but I'm not sure all do. And that's only a concern if you buy a power amp. Of course, an integrated tube amp will have a driver stage. I'm selling my all-tube preamp, but it's basically your budget right there //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Tubes for HT? Well, it can certainly be done, but not for $250. You'd need big power pentodes or tetrodes, something like a few KT88's running push/pull for around 40-50W per channel, so monoblocks running to an external Dolby processor would be the way to go. It would be expensive, but quite a sight. And of course, the subwoofer amp would have to be solid state anyway.

Hope this helps...PM me if you have any more questions, or catch me over on SSA //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Yeah, I know...crossovers are the devil //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif But they seem to fit the criteria for tubes pretty well; relatively flat impedence, decently high efficiency, etc etc. And almost every review I've seen for them has used tubes to power them. I believe at SEMA Adire had tubies on them aswell.

Also, for HT, I wasn't talking full surround sound. Just a simple L & R channel.....

Thanks for the rest of the suggestions. Need to go learn myself a little bit more about tubies, then I'm sure there will be more questions to come //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif