Is there a Solid State amp that can satisfy a SET guy?

@cal3713

It’s a Purity Audio Design Harmonia V2; you have a choice of 2A3 or 300B but I prefer a more dynamic sounding tube and chose the more linear sounding 2A3.

I considered the Supratek but that would take up more room on my rack and I wanted a Pre where the DHT were not influenced by other variants tubes, just the purity of the 2A3 by itself : )

www.responseaudiony.com/harmonia-mk2.html

Wig

Seriously considering getting a Bakoon 13R. It seems like the most different SS. Current drive instead of voltage drive. And I pretty much already know that it may be the ultimate headphone amp.
IME very linear and pure is best with headphones. SET sound is too rich. Believe I can get a demo 13R. Very curious about how it will handle my my big speakers. Still do think about a strong SS amp.
But it is absolutely true that 300B SET fans are a strong sub group in Audio. There are strong and real reasons why we are so devoted to our way of amplifying systems. However, I cannot discount the strong and real reasons why maybe the lion’s share are devoted to SS. I am certainly coming to well understand why this is. I will never forget the “realness” of that MGM lion’s roar! Speaking of lions...

I have a Supratek Cabernet 300B preamp.I was using that with a pair of Bakoon 5515M 50 watt monoblock amplifiers which were unfortunately not mine and had to be returned to the owner.That was a wonderful sounding combination .

- Don’t go for single tube 211, 845 SETs, they sound slow and boring.
- Pani’s recommendations are dead-on and mimic my experiences exactly.
- I have been turned off by owning what should have been a really good sounding amp, the Viva Solista 845 based SET. Yes, it was boring compared to my 300B SET.
- I had the same experience with a De Havilland 845. It was a bore

@pani @eaglejo @mglik @roxy54

What do you attribute the above to? Would like to learn what might be going on with respect the amps you found behaving this way and (perhaps) speaker pairing, etc. synergy? Thanks.

@david_ten

I have no experience with 211 or 845 amps, but I would speculate that in **some** cases an explanation of why **some** of those amps may sound "slow and boring" compared to 300B amps derives from something Ralph ( @atmasphere ) has pointed out in the past.

What he has pointed out (and it makes perfect sense to me) is that since the distortion produced by a 300B (or other low powered SET amp) rises dramatically as output power becomes a significant fraction of its capability, while also becoming vanishingly small at low power levels, and since our hearing mechanisms use certain harmonic distortion components as loudness cues, from a subjective standpoint such amps will tend to have a greater perceived contrast between high volume peaks and softer notes.

In other words, dynamics will seem to be enhanced relative to the presentation of many other kinds of amps.

While if everything else is equal (including speaker efficiency and listening volume) that effect will occur to a much smaller degree, if at all, with a more powerful 211 or 845 SET amp, since the amp will be operating at a relatively small fraction of its power capability even on high volume peaks.

Best,
-- Al