SET Shootout China VS The USA

@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.

@mozartfan sometimes the crowd is actually right ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My mantra is Never ever follow the crowd. If I go the wrong road, I tack it up to exp. Otherwise I follow my own course after my Thor upgrade disaster and listening to my tech saysing **Yes seems 1 of the 15 year old Millenniums are 1/2 ohm off from the other,,,better spend $700 on a new pair..** so I did,

For absoluetly nothing.

Both pairs sound identical. Tweeters last FOREVER if not abused, only swap out diaphram every 30+++ years, Thats it, $50 bucks. Remember what old Frankie sings **And I did it my OWN wayyyyy** I never ever follow the crowd.

@mozartfan 

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..

Sadly you lost half of your audience with your first sentence and the remainder with your last sentence. 

@larryi  Funny you mention hyper realistic with the 2a3. When I was running 2a3 monoblocks with Omegas I often thought about this particular characteristic of internal luminescence. Mids had the sense of being lit up from within, very unusual, never heard this prior or since.

@mozartfan  While its good to be excited, your credibility is seriously lacking. I mentioned it prior, all topologies, systems, equipment may move someone. This is all subjective evaluation, you come across as being objective when using extreme adjectives such as best, greatest, only, etc.

Saying particular tubes always sound a particular way is simply not true. As others have mentioned previously, so many variables to account for.

Your 2a3 tubes in your particular amp in your particular system really say nothing to us.