Which one to choose between two 80K$ tube amps?

mglik,
Agree 100% that the Berning OTL and the Kondo Ongaku could both be considered to be uber quality amplifiers yet as you note unquestionably different sounding. I don’t see how one could be declared superior to the other. They will simply appeal to different types of listeners.

Lean/cooler tonality(some might say more transparent ) OTL versus fuller body/flesh on the bone (some might say warmer) SET. Distinctly different forms of a particular harmonic distortion character. 3rd order versus 2nd order. There are devout fans of each. No right or wrong here.
Charles

@charles1dad The Berning amplifier in question can run feedback or none; being SET its distortion signature is based on a quadratic nonlinearity (2nd harmonic). In order to have a cubic nonlinearity (based on 3rd harmonic) the amp has to be entirely differential from input to output.

The ear treats both the 2nd and 3rd the same way (contributes to 'warmth' and 'richness') but in general an amplifier with a predominate 3rd will have considerably less overall distortion (typically 1/10th) than one based on the 2nd, and as the distortion order is increased, the product falls off faster. This is especially beneficial because the ear is so sensitive to the higher ordered harmonics.


The advantage of the Berning amplifier over a traditional SET is that the output transformer is not nearly as bandwidth limited and it does not have the saturation issues. So it can be made considerably higher power as well!

atma-sphere,
I understand that 3rd order harmonic distortion amplifiers generally have less overall distortion. But, is 3rd order harmonic distortion as easily/naturally tolerated by the human ear as is 2nd order harmonic distortion which is quite well tolerated. Some would say that in fact 2nd order Harmonic distortion is congruent with human hearing.
Charles

and those very high impedance speakers just don’t cut it when the music gets really complicated. the superb aspects of those speakers becomes just ok to good when things really start cranking and wild.

Avantgarde Trios with basshorns can't do this? or the big Cessaros? Not sure I agree with you here.

I think your speakers are simply harder to drive in a large room than one thinks.

Avantgarde Trios with basshorns can’t do this? or the big Cessaros? Not sure I agree with you here.

I think your speakers are simply harder to drive in a large room than one thinks.

depends on one’s expectations for large scale, complicated, reproduced music.

i’m not saying you are limited in musical choices with those very high efficiency speakers, only that those very large scale recordings are not the strength of those type speakers. whereas it is the strength of large dynamic cone speakers. it’s still not easy to accomplish.

the only performance limitation in my room is the limits of SPL’s on the capacity of the human senses. the system exceeds those by a good margin without losing it’s grip.