Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

Mikirob,
I think at some point along the way we adhere to the more power is better mantra. I sure did at one point. We live and learn and find what's best for are individual needs. At one time I owned a Symphonic Line amplifier. A well regarded SS amp. You know what? It was good. My current SET has just moved me to an entirely higher level plain and simple. This is why I can relate to what Rebbi is just discovering now. I understand his great joy with his wonderful amp.

It is, however, possible to go too low in power. I started with a 45SET and then a 2a3 before settling on a 300b amp. My very long speaker cable runs may have had something to do with the fact that the 45 and 2a3 sounded thin despite the fact that the ZuDefs have built-in amps to power the bass drivers. One of the beauties of this hobby is the willingness of small companies to communicate directly with their customers. As Rebbi has learned, there is nothing better than a conversation with a designer/manufacturer who wants a happy customer. Sean Casey at Zu has been unfailingly helpful and gracious with his time. Clearly the same can be said for many others.

I can't imagine what it would cost to ship these babies from Cyprus (the location of the seller) to the US, but look.

Good price, though (before shipping)!

Rebbi, Charles is right as Almarg pointed out, the DeCapo's are likely 86-87db. Get a true 93db or above and everything will get much, much better. And GSM is also correct with his observation that guys like the Zu fellows, Eric at Tekton and many other smaller company designers/manufacturers bust their collective behinds to stand by their product and help their customers. It's daunting, many fail despite good quality products. At any rare, quality over quantity for me and I still am antsy to read Rebbi's further observation and comments.

The it's worth noting the beyond the clipping issue the high output impedance of a set makes it more susceptible to impedance swings. To get the best performance in terms of tonality you must have higher impedance speakers. Has anyone seen an impedance curve for Tekton? An 8 ohm rating is a good start but not the whole story. Speakers truly designed for sets tend to have impedances that are more continuously higher above 8 ohm I think. Coincidents are a good example. The key in terms of clipping though is to not have low impedance at the lower frequencies.

Another key thing with a set is that it distorts with second order harmonics which are not unpleasant to the ear. It also operates mainly in class a which is known to have certain sonic benefits compared to class b. Class d is a totally different beast to compare.

Ss amps have their own set (no pun) of sins but I'm not sure there is any basis to say that a set amp is inherently of any higher quality than any other. It all depends on ones criteria for determine quality I suppose. And of corse quality varies widely within any amplifier category.