What is the "sound" dif. between a Joule -Elctra OTL and a SET amp??

Fluffers,
Is it possible to compare your Wyetech with the Joule at home? Nothing beats a direct comparison in your system. 
Charles, Sent 

Charles,

As for emotional involvement, they are just two different flavors. With either amp, I could listen for hours at a time and feel emotionally involved. If I can close my eyes and imagine being at the Blackhawk nightclub, or some other venue, then my system, including my amps, is doing its job for me.

As for realism, like I said, my OTL amp was noticeably more full bodied and rich in sound, which I really enjoyed, but the OTL was also somewhat diffuse and obfuscated when compared to the Franks. For example, with the Joule bass notes were fatter, drums had more weight, and cymbals could waft in the air forever, it seemed, but I was not hearing things I can hear with the Franks. However, I was using negative feedback a bit with the Joule. I liked the sound, but was it realistic? I thought so when I owned the amp (I Iisten to a lot of rock and a fair amount of jazz), but the Franks brought a different point of view.

I do feel that with the Franks, I am getting more of the inner detail of the music. I will say the Franks are noticeably more realistic with piano notes. My kids played piano, and what I hear through the Franks is closer to what I heard them playing. This is probably more than you wanted to hear. I could go on and on comparing these two fine amplifiers, both of which are immensely enjoyable in their own way.

When it was the time to choose an amp, I went with the Franks, first because they throw off very little heat, and second and more importantly, I am very happy with their sound. I went through several amps during the course of a year in search of a replacement for the Joule amp, and it took the Frankensteins to finally find something that I was happy with. I also found full range speakers that work exceptionally well with the Franks, so I get to experience something like the full bodied sound of the Joule, combined with the traits of the Franks that I like. All that said, I would like to own another OTL amp in the future. It would be great to have the option to again experience two very different yet enjoyable sounds.

Tom

Fluffers,

I happened to like playing with the feedback feature of my amp to tailor the sound. Jud Barber recommended something around the 6-8 o'clock position for my particular amp. He has very good ears. You can dial it down if you want more transparency, or increase it to create a riper sound. That is a nice thing about the Joules. Whatever setting is decided on, the Joules can be very pleasing to the ears. I too would be interested in reading your opinion on the differences between your Wyetech and the Joule, so please keep us posted if you decide to buy the VZN-100.

Tom

Fluffers, Just so we are clear here, unless you are in a smaller room, which is hard to imagine with T-1s, the Frankensteins will likely not have enough power. To really hear what an amplifier like that is all about, you would need a good 6-10 db more efficiency.

I'm very familiar with John's speakers as we've shown with him at shows for the last 20 years or so.

Classic Audio Loudspeakers does offer the Hartsfield Reproductions which are more suitable for the Frankensteins, but IMO the T-1 is a better speaker overall. I'm sure you already know what that is about as you have the T-1.4.

I have heard the older Wyetech 211 amps with the Audio Note transformers and that is a very nice sounding amp.  It was being used with ultra high efficiency speakers (107 db/w) so I do not know how they perform with speakers that are not that efficient.  

I have also heard several Joule OTL amps and they were quite nice sounding too.  For OTLs, they are on the fuller, warmer side of the tonal spectrum. One of the Joules I heard had some noise issues, and this was the case even when running speakers that were not extremely efficient.  I happen to like the lively, dynamic sound of OTL amps.  The Classic Audio speakers I heard, particularly the field coil models, are themselves very dynamic and lively sounding, but, I never thought that combining an OTL with such speakers resulted in too much of a good thing (they sounded quite good with the Atmasphere OTLs that they are often paired with at audio shows).

You can never know how something will work out unless you actually try the particular combination; see if you can arrange an in-home audition with the Joules.