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Aric Audio Super 2A3 SET

It just arrived just about a week ago, but I feel inclined to write a few words about it since my level of satisfaction with this amplifier is immense. I have nothing but praise to give in regards to the level of customer service I have received starting with a curious inquiry to having the amplifier in my home. Since I'm no expert in the world of tubes, I had quite a few questions.

It started with me asking about the 2A3 amplifier listed on his webpage and Aric got back to me with a suggestion. He said he had been waiting for the next order of a 2A3 amplifier and was eager to revise the product and put some new ideas and upgrades into it.
Me being a novice only understood half of the improvements he listed, but it all sounded good to me. I told him about the 2A3 amplifier that got me into looking at a 2A3 based amp and he was very familiar with the one in question and described in detail what he would do to make his version "better". I was sold, and I pulled the trigger, and oh so happy I am that I did.

It is a dual-chassis design that has an all film-capacitor power supply with toroidal filament transformers, DC filaments using Schottky diodes, and film cathode bypass capacitors. Audyn "true copper" foil coupling caps and a choke-filtered power supply, Vishay wire-wound resistors used throughout. 6SL7 SRPP driver stage and 2A3 single-ended output stage producing 3.5 watts per channel into 8 or 16 ohms. I'm running it with the supplied rectifier tube (CBS 5U4GB) and a pair of NOS Tung-Sol 6SU7GTY "Super 6SL7" and a pair of PSVANE WR2A3.

The amp from Aric replaced my old trusty Audio Space Galaxy 88 that produced 48 wpc in ultralinear and 24 wpc in triode. My first impression was that this feels like way more power! at only 3.5 wpc. The bass is deep, tight and "meaty", I hear midbass like I never did before. It's so clear and well defined and when I turn the volume up my walls are shaking, with 3.5 watts(!). Vocals sound like they are floating around the room and with an acoustic guitar I'm just there in front of the stage. It has speed and a level of transparency that is on a completely different level compared to my old amplifier. It also has a completely dead black background.

This amplifier just plays in another league compared to my previous one. I can only recall from memory another comparison of a much more expansive 2A3 SET that got me interested in the first place, I heard it for a lengthy session at a friend of a friends house and it blew me away. This amplifier beats it if my memory serves me right.

I can't imagine a better amplifier at this price and I could use a bunch of more superlatives to describe it.
My current speakers are a pair of Zu omen plugged in on the 16 ohm taps and it seems for now to be a match made in heaven.
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charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Hello Aric,
That is a serious looking and attractive 2A3 SET amplifier.  I really like the decision to have a separate power supply chassis and especially all polyfilm caps (very long lifespan). This seems to be an all out effort 2A3 design (hefty power transformer and chokes (this isn't a budget toy amplifier). I suspect it sounds superb. Is it DC or AC heated? I know that either method can sound good,  just curious which way you decided to go.
Charles 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
tby, 
Congratulations on acquiring this custom built amplifier. It must have surprised you to discover that it provides more satisfying bass performance than your more powerful previous amplifier. I’m pretty certain it is superior in terms of transparency, nuance retrieval and just an overall natural sound quality. Good to hear it matches so well with your Zu speakers.
Charles
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,531 posts
 
@lewinskih01,

I have not heard Triode Labs amps but did call them up for 300B amps. My experience with them was not very good as they weren’t open to discuss any customization.

Aric on the other hand was very patient and open to my ideas. He went over all the possible options for 300B based SET amps. During the build process I also had an opportunity to learned a lot. I can say this unequivocally, with Aric you can have a SOTA amp or preamp that will probably cost you lot more elsewhere. His products represents top notch performance and excellent value.

I am extremely happy the way my amp turned out. You can read all about it in my virtual system once you hit toggle details under Components.
aricaudio's avatar
aricaudio
273 posts
 
Hi Charles, Much appreciated on the kind words and I hope you are doing well!  I went for the power supply having almost zero audible impact on the sound of the amplifier. Tube rectification, the 10H choke, film caps and Western Electric style noise cancelling on the cathodes of the 2A3, plus additional choke and Pi filter for the SRPP driver stage does a great job of isolating the signal from the power supply. I use DC filaments on the 2A3s with Schottky fast recovery diodes and vishay wire-wound resistors as a buffer before the first filter caps and between subsequent capacitor stages. All capacitors are very low ESR as well. In my experience this approach mutes the switching noise from the diodes, and the charging pulses the first capacitor has to absorb. Additionally the toroids provide excellent regulation and very low noise (plus zero magnetic field due to their construction). The reason I don't use AC is that the 60Hz hash from the wall still ends up across the audio signal and modulates at that frequency plus several octaves above and below and is audible. Many state that AC heaters provide a "lively" sound, or that DC "sucks the life" out of the sound, which may be true in each person's specific experience, however the modulation with AC is there and measurable and does introduce itself into the audio signal. With DC, if the charging spikes are minimized, and the cathode is decently isolated then you get a very quiet amplifier that does not have that AC modulation riding on the audio signal. Again, thank you very much for the kind words and noticing the various aspect of the build of this amplifier! Best regards, Aric
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Aric,
Thank you very much for your detailed and informative reply. I completely understand your rationale for the numerous choices that have to be made in regard to design and implementation of such a high quality amplifier. Given all the factors that one has to weigh I would choose DC heating rather than AC heating as well. I wish you continued success. 
Charles 
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