SET Asylum: not trying to change your mind... by shane versteeg Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

For Sale Ads FAQ / News / Events

Posted by shane versteeg on January 18, 2001 at 09:40:46

In Reply to: Re: still... posted by Vince on January 17, 2001 at 20:35:09:

just simply telling you that the reason why flea-powered amps were built (by some Japanese folks - revived, in an important way by tube-lovers who find single-ended circuits unbelievably impossible to live without [especially those that call for and use directly-heated triodes] here in the states like Don Garber, JC Morrison, and Herb Reichart in New York City) is the same reason why Japanese audiofreaks (as well as French, Italian, and now American musicheads) use high impedance/high sensitivity loudspeakers such as giant Voice of the Theater Altecs (in all their various forms), giant Klipsch boathouses, and (yes) Lowther-based weirdo-smeirdo horn systems - we have not found any combination that works so well together as SET/horn systems.

The reasons why I like the SET topology so much is not because of holography or audiophile tricks - it is simply the purity of this note and that note. It is the bite of the string. The blat! of the horn. The bomp of the beat. The silence. And I am not just talking about chamber music (although, this is about 1/2 of what I listen to), I am talking about real pulsing realism - the subtle and huge changes of direction that music often takes and the natural flow that human and instrument create together. When I talk about SETs and high efficient/high impedance (among other things), I am talking about ENERGY that is found nowhere else. I am not sure of the model #s, but both the cheapest Maggies and the most expensive ones (and the ones that have three panels, by the way) sounded very good with Cary 300B monoblocks - but so do many other speakers that I listened to that day (like a pair of Cantons, a pair of Linns (my own), and a pair of Roksans) sounded pretty good with that amp, a Conrad Johnson preamp, and a Linn turntable - and is that the point you are trying to make?

If so, fine. But! That is not what I mean by what someone else has termed "SET magic." That stuff - all the color, ENERGY, subtlety, speed, and what Joe Roberts calls the "THEY (the musicians) ARE HERE" experience (as opposed to the "you are there" experience) - comes from ultra high efficiency/high impedance loudspeakers. Otherwise, it is just good sound.

Not trying to change your mind, I am just going to say again what has been said for years (before the high end-fly end guys started picking up on the SET thing and selling it in their overly-priced audiofool stores, hooking them up to speakers that are normally driven [and were built to be driven] by super-high powered amps from ARC and Krell, and try to call it art) by people who love music and create music systems around passion aroused by horns and SET amps...

Either do it, or do something else. If you want the SET experience, do it right. If you want to listen to the beautiful soundstage and "air" of Maggies, go for it. But as much "good sound" as you get out of making a combo out of the two, at best you are getting 50-60% of the musical cream you could get out of either one of them if you would think about the system as a whole and use the Maggies with an amp similar to the one that the manufacturer designed it for, and use the SET with something that would really allow it to shine.

I would never recommend this type of combo to a friend who loves music.

Shane

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---