Tekton Double Impacts

Bill,

Great to hear that you are having good results with your setup!

I have a Schiit Yggdrasil in my chain also. I'm using a Small Green Computer - Sonore microRendu combination off of an Ethernet switch. Roon / Tidal as the software with multiple devices serving as remote and the SGC as Core. With excellent results, also.

I'm working on getting a bit more out of the Yggy via footers/platforms/weights for isolation, damping, etc. 

I have had the pleasure of listening to some fine SET amps, Jcarcop's included. And have enjoyed them very much.  And when talking tubes, I am ONLY ever interested in SET designs; push pull tube amps do nothing at all for me.

But, I favor good SS designs these days. My comments, while phrased to be annoying, were true. The good things our ear likes on tube/transformer amplifers are a function of tiny eq (sub half db), some resonant behavior, and the spectra of the distortion which all add flavoring to what might be sterile sounding digital music.  I just prefer to do that in software, where I can turn if off if it's not in the service of the music (For instance, if the album was mastered with all sorts of tube gear and or digital plugins. In that case, too much of a good thing.) And, of course, because I love the challenge of finding just WHAT it is we are hearing that we like! Turns out that the great mixing and mastering engineers have known for decades.

@teajay thanks of the recommendations. Do you feel comfortable that 11-12 watts will be enough in a LR Mains HT application? And no, I don't listen to 110dB as a norm. But I would like to have a bit of head-room to facilitate the more dynamic music that generally includes a considerable quantity of low end. Considering that, would I need to incorporate a Sub to help the tube amp on the low end?

Hi bullitt5094,

I believe that anywhere from 5 to 10 watts driving the DI's would be fine in a HT LR Mains setup.  My room has 30 foot ceilings, is 28 feet wide, and 40 feet in depth and I have no problem with volume levels or dynamics on all types of music with 5 watts. I have always used a pair of sub-woofers in my room crossed over at 30 at very low volume levels not for bass extension or reinforcement, but for ambient cues that fill out the depth/width of the sound-stage created in my room.  Since I drive this pair directly from the Micro-ZOTL I'll often shut off the amp to show what the subs are really adding to my listeners and they often laugh at how little they really are adding, yet if I turn them off the sound-stage flattens out and loses its 3D perspective.  This also means that the DI's being driven with 5 watts is producing the low end grunt on its own when the music contains this type of bass frequencies.  

Bullitt,

Now I truly understand the passion for set tube amps that Teajay and others have,I've owned several good ones over the yrs.I only have one now but I'm presently more focused with various SS amps driven by the LTA MZ2s preamp.

If I recall you have a fairly large room and you occasionally listen loud approaching 110db levels.My room is 20x25x9 with a open kitchen on one end and I don't need the 40 watts of the amp that I'm using to reach those kind of sound levels.I sometimes listen to full orchestra very loudly and have all the pwr I need without subs.Since getting the DI's my subs haven't even been turned on for music.

One option for you is maybe look at a push pull El-34 tube amp,might split the difference for your needs.That would give you 35 to 40 watts,and a good one will give you a high percentage of the Set sound signature that you may like.If you don't mind a slightly used one you could probably find a good one for about 2k maybe less.

Best of luck to you,

Kenny.