CHANGING FROM AUDIO RESEARCH TO AUDIO NOTE SYSTEM 

From the peanut gallery: very informed and entertaining thread!

SET and front horns can have a natural synergy and you will not have to worry about output levels. Dynamic box speakers and a SET is kind of SETing yourself up for failure.

@perkri 

Cool experiment, I am envious of your skills…never could master the art of elegant soldering.

So, my oh so very inexpensive little SET amp will have to do some ongoing music duties before I make that change. 

If you like the sound of the el84 in your circuit it is technically a SEP (single ended pentode) just wait until you hear a true single ended triode well executed. As someone who has fallen into the SET rabbit hole, if you like what you hear, stop! It gets very expensive very quickly. Best wishes.

@ghasley 

You are correct! SEP indeed… Dragon chasing is very much one of my personality defects. So deep in the rabbit hole I can barely see the exit.

After many hours of mucking about, I have managed to get all the voltages to where they are supposed to be in the amp. Without having access to a scope, I have to trust my ears when it comes to distortion and output volume. Certainly plays more than loud enough through my Cornwalls.  Now I just need to find the source of the 120hz hum. Rectifier tube? Filter caps? Ripple voltage? Ground loop? 

Should have the last issues resolved soon. Then I can put it in a couple of pretty boxes, upgrade the tubes and call it a day. 

Put some photos in my system page.

After my first post I had some more listening time to an AN system on my dealer. AN E  LX Hemp, 94 db, AN M2 Line preamp and P1 SE SIGNATURE power. 
 

returning home and listening TO the same tracks on my system, the sound seemed hard and aggressive, lesser texture and lesser tonality. my room at home has no treatment and the dealer has a lot of Treatment. The source was an AN transport plus DAC. At home is a Meridian G08. 
I have an offer to buy me back my REF150 and Sophia 3 and getting a P3 tonemeister silver and ANE SPE. For the power amp I feel comfortable on the change. However, for the loudspeakers, I feel I am exchanging a nice Audi for a good Ford. The later is very enjoyable to drive but the former is technologically superior. I don’t know if the image is good enough. But I feel I am trading a speaker technolohically more advanced for one with not such technical and innovative solutions but with a simple and sound engineering. 
 

I will have a home demo of the same system.