While I don't have experience with that model, I haven't heard a Line Magnetic amp that I didn't adore. I've even run them on dynaudios with great results - makes no sense on paper but the music is beautiful
Once you go 300b it’s hard to go back?
It’s been a while since posting here and total change in my system. I’ve been on the lower power trip and been using a first watt sit2 for years and rotating preamps. I’m now using Omega 1.5 Alinco speakers. I recently picked up a Line Magnetic 210, a 300b set integreted. I have been loving it. Barley pushing 1 watt according to the meter. Then I purchased some new tubes the Elrog 300b and EML rectifiers. Almost spending more on tubes than the amp it self. I have ignored responsibilities because it’s hard to step away from the music. Everything sounds wonderfully intoxicating. The simplicity of the integrated, and the lovely glow of sound coming from the tubes. I knew tubes could sound great but really impressed with an integrated amp.
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Hi @jond, Until I lived with Lynn Olson’s personal Karna amplifiers (http://www.nutshellhifi.com/triode2.html) while he was getting settled into his new house here in Colorado in 2005, much of this lush vs. quick 300B stereotype was theory. Yes, I’d heard 300B amps that were more or less incisive, but they still fell within a range that I’d refer to as a "normal" characterization of a 300B. The material on Lynn's page is a bit dated, as the Ariel speakers are about to receive an upgrade to a horn system he's been designing over the past few years, but the basic amplifier design principles hold true to this day. Of course, Lynn’s amplifiers are push-pull 300Bs (so this isn’t an apples to apples comparison with anything else), but he used all of the power supply tricks I’m using, and of equal importance is that his driver tube is a 45 (Sakuma/direct heating again - output tube driving output tube). The Karnas' sound more like powerful single ended amps than push-pull, which plays into my theory that the better various architectures are designed and implemented, the more convergence there is between them. Cheers, Thom @ Galibier Design |
Lynn is a brilliant theoretician and I feel fortunate to live in the same town - bouncing ideas back and forth with him. Having his Karnas in my house for those three months was revelatory. Check out his essay "Illusion Engines". Some of it (written in the mid-90’s) is a bit dated, but the concepts are still viable (to me): http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/illusion-engines.html. He's primarily a "speaker guy" (having designed first for Audionics in the '70's), but he digs into all areas of audio with passion. Cheers, Thom @ Galibier Design |
Hi Thom, Your comments on driver tubes and circuitry is spot on. Once you chose a particular DHT tube, separates SET amps is really the driver circuitry. Followed by the OPTs. Or do like I did, which is to ditch the OPTs altogether OTL. My Berning 300B SET OTL (new "Siegfried") is my current fave SET amp and looks like it will remain for a long time. |
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