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what is your opinion ?

Hi everyone, last 18 years I've got hooked up to vintage Tube amplifiers, prior to that I was rather happy with SS muscle amps driven to my Apogee Scintilla and Duetta sig's truly open 3D soundstage Few tube amps was able accept Apogee marriage but not  as good as SS amps, until I ended up bargain priced infamous Altec's voice the theatre speakers not a wife pleaser but luckly I've  got a dedicated music room, never looked back since then ,,WE design 91 , WE46C , RIP Don Garber, even loftin White design SET amps T.Mayer Attilio Caccamo of Tektron some genious Japanese design SET Amps they all have unique presantation complimented by incredable sound of 45, 2A3, VT52,300B, E406N, even modern production Sophia 206 , and many more  ! my question is why these old school design audio sounds nearer to reality ? naturally we are all aware of room acoustics tuning our  rooms etc, etc are we listening equipment or music ? do we really need furniture grade Audio equipment ? or maybe we humans are we trying to re invent the wheel again ?
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sabih's avatar
sabih OP
27 posts
 
Thanks , I  would really like to hear from other music lovers and Audiphiles, their experiences which regards SET amplifiers and horns and other high sensivity speakers,  as a retired BBC Sound engineer ,once I had a opportunity to good chat  with RIP Don Garber asked him what is the best system, his respond was ,,,The  Best system is the  one you are really enjoying listening to .
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,633 posts
 
I run horn speakers and I've run SETs on them many times. But I prefer an OTL on them as it has obviously wider bandwidth, lower distortion, greater detail, etc. No going back.
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islandmandan
1,260 posts
 
I just recently acquired what to me is a fairly unique amplifier, a 3C24 amp that's giving me the best, most enjoyable sound I've ever heard with my Tannoy HPD 315 custom built speakers.

This amp was built for me by Paul Birkeland, designer for Bottlehead Industries.

This is in my living (listening room) in the home I have lived in for twenty seven years, where I have tried quite a few amps over the years. These being mostly solid state, but I was enticed by the likes of the late Art Dudley to try tube amp designs. I am not going back to solid state ever again. I've tried VAC (PA 35.35, and a very nice sounding Audio Assemblies SET 300B, but my new 3C24 is, and will remain, the best amp for my room and speakers. That's something, in my book.

Maybe Ralph may want to comment on how the 3C24 would match with your Altecs.

Best regards to all,
Dan
jtcf's avatar
jtcf
1,594 posts
 
I don't have horns at the present time but have a story to share about an old pair of Celestion Ditton bookshelves with broken wire clips that are going in a guest room after  repairs.I've been listening to them for three days in my regular system and the little buggers sound fantastic no matter what I throw at them from Led Zeppelin to Joni Mitchell.Hooked up with lamp cord.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,633 posts
 
Maybe Ralph may want to comment on how the 3C24 would match with your Altecs.

I think it might work rather well but the design of the output transformer would be paramount, as this tube likes to run at some pretty high voltages! This requires a higher turns ratio on the transformer as well as some other considerations for high voltage operation. How much power does it make- about 20 watts or so?
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