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Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

Oh, yeah.

astrostar59, hi. However, your question may be not clearly defined.
"well designed..." What have you in mind?

The assemblage of parts necessary for music playback (amplifier) that I find best you may not. Actually, there may be no best but rather a variety of approaches that bring the listener closer to the music - approaches that in their various ways are all good but not similar. If you DIY you may wind up with a variety of amps built around your favorite tubes. Each amp would do something best. I think this is common.

There are those flogging the art of audio ugrades who should be running a three card monte concession in a carnival. However, sometimes just a simple part substitution or small piece of signal wire change can make what one would have to call big magic.

Personally, I don't like metal film or metal oxide resistors in vacuum tube amplifier circuits. I prefer wire wound precision 1% and carbon film. For 1/4 W I like to use 1/2 W or bigger - and so on. Electrolytic caps should be avoided - the only exceptions: Black Gate and Cerafine (discontinued). There may be others who only use carbon composition R. Who is right? Who is listening?

Yes - everything matters - layout, chassis material, component parts, excellence of power supply, ad nauseum. The art lies in making part decisions that combine to make something greater than the sum of the parts. (so to speak) In this way one creates an amplifier that can bring the music back to life in the moment. It is also possible to take very very good parts and make something that just sounds blah. This is both the wonderful and terrifying thing about design. The blank page.


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  • Oh, yeah. - elektron 02/19/0712:49:53 02/19/07 (0)


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