SET Shootout China VS The USA

@ charles 1 

if I follow the crowd,, what will I learn?

Thats not already common knowledge??

Who would have ever suggested a  SET type PP design??

Never heard sucha  thing as a  low watt PP circuit.

Now my FR hasa   good match.

I was  always thinking,, KT PP is too much power. Yet SET's not enough dynamics for big full orchestra...

Dilemma.

However I did have at one time a  Cayin El34  smallest Cayin model , had ultra linear and triode switch..

I sold it off a  few months later,  thinking not enough drive for the Thors.

Yet perhaps a perfect match fora  FR system..

This  lil 2A3 PP is the answer to my quest for the ideal amplification for a  FR system. 

Hopefully the tubes can  hold up under a  four driver  load speaker system. 

If the tubes begin shorting out too early,, I may have to drop  some drivers and make ita  single FR + a  single tweeter.

Time will tell....

If so, then the Defy will have to carry the dual FR + dual tweeters/big orchestra. 

The 2A3 only for light chamber, solo piano., single FR + single tweeter. 

if I follow the crowd,, what will I learn

@mozartfan 

Follow the crowd? I am the one encouraging you to continue your current discoveries in regard to tubes and particularly DHT tubes. Again you have a tendency (In my opinion) to make judgements hastily. But in the end you have to be you. BTW,  DHT push pull amplifiers are nothing new, have been around for some time. I do understand that this genre is new to you.  Best of luck to you.

Charles 

The meshplate triode tube I am familiar with is the EML 2a3.  I ran a quad of these in my Audio Note Kageki amps (parallel single-ended).  I like their sound.  The soundstage was gigantic, open and enveloping.  If someone thought it was a by hyper-realistic (in a technicolor sort of way), I would not disagree.  A friend thought it sounded a touch phasey; I would sort of agree, but, image placement was precise, so it was not truly out-of-phase sounding.  

The most exotic meshplate I've heard is a meshplate 252.  This tube is so rare that I know someone who was offered a trade of a pair of solidplate 252 plus $20,000 forin exchange for a pair of meshplate 252s.  The offer was declined. 

By the way, the Western Electric 59As (the amp that runs 252s) is a terrific sounding amp.  I could never afford the amp, and even if I had one, I could not see running it very often because of the crazy cost of its tubes.

@mozartfan sometimes the crowd is actually right. In this case you received the amp sometime on 12/18. Later that day and into the 19th you are proclaiming the amp a world beater, which may or may not true…its your world and therefore your world to beat. Respectfully, you don’t yet understand what the tubes or the amp will sound like. You ponder a Jadis kt170 based amp when few have heard that amp let alone the new kt170 tube.

To the Audiogon community’s great credit, people are being very gentle with you but the homebrew, fr driver speakers with an extra driver and a tweeter daisy chained as your baseline with an unknown Yaquin amp and tubes with abiut 10-20 hours on it at the time of your proclamations….seriously, you should give yourself a chance to hear whats going on and there is literally no way for you to get a taste of what you may or may not have in this exercise. Give it some time, make notes of what is going on, how it is changing and whether its for better or worse. 

to make judgements hastily. But in the end you have to be you. BTW, DHT push pull amplifiers are nothing new, have been around for some time ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bought the amp, behind my tech’s back, had he foreknown I’d buy the amp, he would have pulled out his 1929 RCA tube data book and pointed out 1st data ~~~5% distortion on self bias** wopping,,

and I may have dismissed his 5% as no big deal.

I would have thought,,well thats 90 yrs ago, perhaps Psvane has developed a new tube that avoids most of this 5% distort,,,, He again pointed it out as he biased the tubes. Auto bias 2.5 %. much better, but this yaquin is self bias 5%. and pointed out other issues in data witha AB1 PP 2A3 design in the tubes plate dispication, voltage and such. But he did go on to say **who knows you might like it in spite of these inherent issues..**

And now I know about 5% distortion,, its there in the ~~luckily ~~~ upper mids, not   upper bass/low mids,, which would grate on my nerves...

,, Its only in certain fq’s, not the entire range. My DL’s can deal with it, as both speakers are near distortion free. They can absor the 5% with ease. The Philips tweeter kicks in at 5khz, so it does not have to deal with the midrange distortion. The only way this fantastic amp will work ina system is IF 1) FR speakers ONLY 2) FR with very low distortion peaks , that is neutral throughout this 5% distortion from the tube. Trade offs as usual. I accept the 5%, but in return the tube rewards with very nice midrange, vocals, soundstage.

The KT88 has , not sure like 2% distortion,, but you do not get the superior ```hard to say exactly~~~ but superior something or other.

Now will the Full Music  Mesh Plates

soften up some of this distortion, mellow out the ever so slight harshness... remains to be heard. Stay tuned.

I prefer Faith Hill, Diana Krall via the 5% distort 2A3PP vs a KT88PP. All day long. My suggestion is if you are going into a FR system as a 2nd system, this is the amp to buy.. @ Charles No very few of these 2A3 PP amps in the market place, Plenty of SET 2A3, this Yaquin and maybe 1 or 2 others in the PP design. This amplifier will not work with xover low sens speakers.

Dont even try.