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

Two amplifiers that represent the pinnacle of decades of design development of two legends in the Audio world, Kondo san and Berning san. I speak from a listener and enthusiast’s perspective. Not from a technical one. I do not discount the importance of specs and technical aspects. But present the importance of enjoying the music. If someone’s tastes lean toward the “cool and neutral” presentation, the Berning is perhaps the ultimate example. If one’s tastes are more the “warm and liquid”, the Kondo may be the best there is. Both amps are highly “musical”. Perhaps the classic yin and yang. Personally, if I had the cash and inclination, I would jump at a chance to own the Kondo for $30+K less and never look back. Especially considering the “taming” of that plasma tweeter!

Clearly, both are SET tube based. However, when I refer to “warm and cool” I speak of the designer’s tastes IME. 

I had this post to find out which one people prefer between high power tube and Small power quality tube one.

I have Silbatone 300B SET with silver foiled output transformer.

With WE 300B made in 40’s, it give excellent details, transparent, wide and deep soundstage.

But it does not have enough headroom in my listening space with high vault.


I may get horn speaker with more than 105 db/W efficiency to work with Silbatone in the future.


Or I may drive using active crossover to feed only 50hz or high to Silbaton and 50hz below to my two 18 inches Scaena subwoofers.

Since I had never used OTL, I am also intrigued with one that made by Atma-sphere.


But I am not in a hurry since I am also happy with Line Magnetic 508 48 Watts SET after lot of tube rolling.

It give enough headroom and bass control so that I may not need to use subwoofer.

Bah! silly question.., at that price you should buy BOTH!!

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.

@charles1dad 
The short answer is 'yes'. The ear treats both *exactly* the same. What *does not work* is if the amp has low distortion, but the distortion it has is mostly higher ordered harmonics (5th and above). Such amps tend to sound bright and harsh, compared to an amplifier that has a predominate 2nd or 3rd. The reason that so many push-pull amps get docked for their sound as opposed to an SET is that when you combine a single-ended voltage amplifier with a push-pull output, that type of topology tends to produce a noticeable 5th harmonic, which makes the amp less musical.


The only way I've found to get around that is to avoid that sort of topology- either go entirely single-ended and get that 2nd harmonic or go entirely fully differential and get a 3rd harmonic (although at about 1/10th the level that the 2nd shows up in a single-ended circuit). Since the ear is relatively insensitive to either other than contributing to 'warmth', 'body' and the like, this seems to be the way to go since you can't put enough feedback on a tube amp to really tame the distortion properly (or most solid state amps for that matter)- you wind up just making it brighter and harsher.