SET amp recommendation

12-12-11: Herman
As long as you can live with the loss of power. I believe these calculations are correct....

Not that it makes much difference, but the power loss will be a bit less than what you calculated. Since the output impedance of a SET amp is significant, it will be able to put more voltage into 12 ohms than into 8 ohms. Output impedances that I recall seeing for 300B SET amps range from around 2 ohms to around 5 ohms, corresponding to damping factors of 4 to less than 2.

Taking as an example an output impedance of 4 ohms (damping factor 2), I calculate that the 8W capability into 8 ohms would be reduced to 6.75W into the 4 ohm load through the autoformer's 3:1 impedance transformation.

Best regards,
-- Al

Thanks Al,
I knew there was some definite advantage for tube amps driving higher ohm loads. Higher voltage output, I`ll remember that now.
Charles

Hi Charles,

An additional reason stems from the fact that if speaker impedance is higher, amplifier output impedance becomes a smaller fraction of speaker impedance. That will decrease the magnitude of frequency response variations that will result from interaction of amplifier output impedance with variations of speaker impedance that occur as a function of frequency.

Also, the very low damping factor of these kinds of amplifiers will increase in proportion to speaker impedance.

Finally, higher load impedance means that less current (although more voltage) is required to deliver a given amount of power.

All of those are reasons why, as you said, "tube amps like a higher ohm load that`s relatively flat."

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, you are the man when it comes to clear technical explanations.I don`t have an engineering background but my ears sure told something very good is happening with the higher ohm speaker loads and tube amplifiers(particularly
SET amps).
Best Regards,

12-12-11: Erfranke
I guess what I am looking for is SET configuration that is not overly colored or muddy. The Carys were nice, but just say I am glad I didnt pay full price for them.

I had a similar Cary experience with the Cary SEI 300B. Lush, intimate, involving, but too much of each for my taste.

As Zmanastronomy suggested above, the Almarro A318-B is a terrific choice. You get almost every last bit of the SET "magic" without the coloration. And it is 18wpc. That extra ~3dB in output makes a difference sometimes.