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Recommended SET amp and speakers to 20k

Hello:  I am in the market for a SET amp, 2A3, 300b or 845, i haven’t decided yet and speakers to complement them.  My budget is 20k for both, used is fine.  If anyone has some recommendations/comments that would be very helpful.  Thanks,  Bruce
bringgeld
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 

Ozzy,

I find forum threads  to be a good starting point. You get replies from people who have owned or heard products that someone is not aware of. I don't expect anyone to go  blindly  follow multitudes of suggestions  (how could they?). But one can begin to assemble information and gather data and then begin a search with some sense of direction.


If the OP does not have much exposure to SET amplifiers you have to ask questions and start somewhere. This would be followed by going out and trying to hear as much as is reasonably possible. There's so much available you will never be able to hear everything. You just do the best you can manage.

Charles

larryi
4,343 posts
 
Charles,

It has been a long time since I heard Odeon speakers.  At the time, I did not like the tonal qualities (coloration), but, I am now more used to, and can live with such tonal qualities.  Overall, I did like the speaker, but, not enough to buy one.  I cannot say whether I would like the system these days, given my ever evolving taste in systems.

 I own a system that uses a horn midrange, but, it does not have much of the "megaphone" or nasal quality of many other horn drivers.    
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,168 posts
 
Getting hifi bandwidth out of an SET is challenging when the full power is over about 8 watts or so. Usually the bass is sacrificed so that the output transformer can make it to 20KHz.


Often that works, since the speakers that have the sort of efficiency you need sacrifice bass response for efficiency so you wouldn't hear the bass rolloff in the amp anyway.

However before pulling the trigger, you might want to audition a triode push-pull amplifier of the same power. You may find that the decreased distortion and increased bandwidth to be helpful on the resolution side, and the simple fact that a push-pull amp has less distortion means that you have a greater percentage of usable power. SETs really should not be pushed past about 20% of full power, as distortion at power levels above that in the transients of the music cause them to sound very 'dynamic'. Maybe this is me, but I prefer to hear the dynamic quality of the music, rather than distortion masquerading as 'dynamics'.



wolf_garcia
6,795 posts
 
Dragon Inspire QMB-25 mono amps (made by Dennis Had) cost around 4 grand a pair new, and add whatever model of high efficiency Klipsch Heritage speakers you prefer as lately a few have been redisigned...Heresy IV, Forte III, and Cornwall IV (102db efficiency for that one). I use a little single ended allegedly wide band 12wpc Had amp with Heresy IIIs and it’s all the amp I need...except for the two powered REL subs. No audible distortion ever and it’s clean clear and powerful.
essrand
297 posts
 
Luxman MQ-300 (on audiogon, 15k-ish) + Devore O/96 (available for around 7k on usaudiomart, grab it before it goes). Should come to around 20k. Probably will be the best SET/speaker combo in the planet. Cannot get better than this.
Have heard both of them, and some of the best SETs around when I was looking for a 300b amp, Luxman MQ-300 is out of this world.
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