SET Shootout China VS The USA

With the Manley, which sounded better in the setup you heard--the pushpull or single-ended setting?  

I am pretty much agnostic when it comes to best topology.  I've heard quite a number of very good amps employing all sorts of approaches.  Between my pushpull 45, pushpull 349 and parallel single-ended 2a3 amps, my favorite is the pushpull 349.  There are things I do like about the parallel SET amp, but the fullness of the 349 amp carries the day.  

Among all the amps I've listened to in a familiar system, my favorite is a custom-built output transformerless amp--the sound was extremely vivid and lively, without having an unnatural edginess to it.  My next favorite is a pushpull 252 amp (a real Western Electric 59A amp) that was also extremely lively and full sounding.  I heard the 252 amp side by side with the Audio Note Kageki (the parallel SET amp that I own), and by comparison, the Kageki sounded thin and drab.  The best SET amp I heard was an Audio Note Gaku-On.  The Gaku-On sounds good with just about any speaker I heard it playing; .

@larryi I'm jealous of all the amps you've heard and own! I  also never knew there was a 349 tube until your last post. I've heard a pushpull 45 amp sounding great as well as my own pushpull 2a3 amp, also loved a Cary pushpull 2a3 integrated I was loaned for a week once. @charles1dad Glad you had a chance to hear that Manley it sounds like a cool amp.

The 349 is now quite rare and expensive, although there is a reasonably priced drop in alternative (6V6?).  The amp also runs 348 as input and driver tubes.  Both types now sell for somewhere around $1600 each for used tubes that test “strong.” My stereo amp runs four of each type.  The only good news is that the tubes are run gently so they seem to last forever.  The amp is essentially a stereo rebuild of a Western Electric 133 amp.  It has the correct input and output transformers for that amp type as well as some other vintage parts.

The sound of my 349 amp is similar to a 6L6 amp.  I generally like that tube and KT 66 tubes as well.

"I've gone over this more than a  dozens x's here on audiogon and I aint gonna repeat myself."

Of course you will mozartfan, you always do.