LTA Ultralinear vs SET amps

I had a friend who wrote an article called 'Color Me Perfect' meaning every amp has faults and you pick the one that has the combination of pluses and minuses that please you the most. That means that the most important factor in choosing audio gear is to learn to know yourself, a hard process. 

But single ended amps have certain characteristics. Due to high output impedance they have soft, bumped up bass and also often bumped up midrange. Due to low power output they are easy to run into overload unless you pick very efficient speakers. And due to non linearity they have high second harmonic distortion, a very rich but musically enticing sound.

All single ended amps are inherently non linear due to the circuit topology of single ended meaning there is no cure for it. They produce a non symmetrical output. They don't amplify the negative half of an input as much as the positive half. If you put a test sine wave in them the negative half of the test wave will not go down as far as the positive half will go up.

By the wave David Berning is a genius and his amplifier designs are special. A friend of mine who designed all sorts of unique tube amps over the years called me up when he saw what David did with his latest circuit and told me it was the first really new circuit concept in decades.

I felt the same way about my former 300B monoblocks. Bought and built the Elekit TU-8600 with Lundahl transformers and that fixed it for me. It's an excellent amp And those transformers have such a vigorous and authoritative sound. Definitely not anemic, at least not to me. 

@lancelock,
LTA modded UL’s? Thanks 

Agree Medium_Grade, I also have the Elekit TU-8600 and it is a remarkable amplifier, slightly leaner than my SETs but with greater clarity overall.  

All amps require proper matching with speakers to sound best. SET amp won't sound its best with speakers requiring high damping factor, limpid bass. Steep impedance curve not good, unbalanced sound, need easier to drive. And not all SET created equal, different power tubes, different manufacturers. Try 845SET with massive power supply, you want speed slam, here you go. Provided proper matching, SET does things no other amp topology can match. At the moment I rotate 845SET, 300B SET and push pull tube in system, all three have their special attributes.