Tekton Double Impacts

@teajay  "I wish the individuals who are experienced with high power SS amplifiers on the DI's could spend some time with a SET amplifier, they might find it very hard to go back to their SS gear."
Question TJ... Take a $4K budget. Using the DIs for Stereo and HT applications. I would need a Preamp with an HT Pass-Through mode similar to what the Odyssey Calandra offers to incorporated it simplistically into my system to make it user friendly for the others in my household. What SET based Pre and Power amp would your recommend to power the DIs to at least 110dB in a well treated room that's 20 deep, 14wide and 12 high and a distance of 12ft from the mains? And I don't play chamber music. My most recent purchase was Bleachers.
Lastly, I don't want to demo this in a store. I don't want to have to deal with a dealer coming to my house. I would be willing to buy the unit if they would agree to a trial/return similar to Tekton and Odyssey. So far I've contacted a couple of tube manufactures and they are all into the Soup Nazi marketing mode. I, in fact, contacted Rogue last week and that was what I got from them. I'm very interested in your response.

Hey bullitt5094,

First, I would highly recommend that you contact Mark or Will at Linear Tube Audio and ask how much the upgrade is to modify a Micro-ZOTL to have a HT-bypass installed.  The cost of this piece is around $1,700.00.  Nothing and I mean nothing can touch this in its performance as a preamplifier for thousands of dollars more.

Next, call Steve at Quest For Sound and ask if they still have any Consonance Cyber-30 SET 2A3 amplifiers in stock that retail for $1,150.00.  I mentioned this earlier on this thread that for the $ this well built little amplifier sounds great being driven by the Micro-ZOTL on the DI's.  I do believe that each of these companies have a return policy if you are not pleased with the piece.  I had the volume control taken out of the circuit, which is very easy to do by removing one set of wires, which increased the performance of Cyber-30 greatly, but you could still get your take on it to see if it's what you want, knowing it gets better by the easy modification and be able to return it if you are not satisfied.

If you really play your system at 110dB peaks, hope not very often-even on movie sound tracks for the sake of your hearing, I can't guarantee you will hit this sound pressure range, however you might be shocked how close you would be able to come to it.  I have a very large acoustic space and have no problems filling it at very high volume levels with no attenuation/distortion at all.  If you are that concerned about this you could try the Cyber-10 ( KT66 or 6550 tubes) that puts out around 12 watts, compared to the Cyber-30 2A3 5 watts, but different tubes have different sonics, so I can't predict what this amp sounds like.  I do like KT66 and 6550 power tubes, however, they don't sound like 2A3's.

The total retail price for both pieces is $2,850.00 way under your budget of 4K which leaves enough money to do some serious tube rolling!  If you contact either of these vendors tell them that I say hi.

Charles,

I'm having more fun than I have ever had,Offcourse I have more time to listen than ever.

What I have is a diy nos Sony Vfet sit amp that is push pull class a producing 40 watts into 4.The design was given to the diy community from Nelson's gracious nature.I have heard a production version of the first watt sit 2 stereo version but I have never owned one.I did use to own the J2 and I believe my Sony amp splits the difference in sound qualities between the 2.

The Sony Vfet amp brings more of the tube set characteristics to the table than any other SS amp that I have ever heard.Now can it fully replace a quality set tube amp,No way if that's the sonics that a person desires.

I did build the diy first watt F5 and F5 turbo version a few yrs back but I did'nt build the Sony one,I did'nt put my order in quick enough to purchase matched pairs of nos Sony Vfet's and now they are all gone.

I will always keep a set tube amp around for reference and probably will find my way back to them in the future.My favorite tube is the 2a3,I have had several and have also built a couple.But honestly a Sep with el34's done right is not bad either.


Teajay,

I'm looking forward to reading about your opinion on the big boys from Tekton and I always enjoy reading your common sense honesty on any of your posts.
The Brimar 6060 is the quietest variety of the 12at7 family of tubes,I wish I still had some,very hard to come by now.The Brimar cv4024 is a close second.I use very high quality 1950's mullards and Amperex bugle boys 12at7's in my MZ2s.

Best,

Kenny.

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for the compliment regarding my posts. I owned a First Watt SIT-2 and think it's a very special amp in its own right.  It really needs to be driven by a great preamp because it is completely transparent/neutral/grainless and is totally influenced by the upstream line-stage.  Great, but different then a SET tube amp in the way it presents the music.

Teajay,

that consonance cyber 30 looks like a fun little 2A3 SET amp to play with until I can order the Triode Lab 2A3S FFX. Approximately how close will the Cyber 30 get me to the Triode Lab? Thanks.