300B SET Amp driving Wilson Sabrinas

@mootsdude If you used that amp with a speaker of 10dB greater sensitivity, you'd find that amp more spacious and more detailed, also smoother sounding all for the same reason: its making less distortion.

The Coincident, being designed to be easy to drive, points you in that direction.

OTOH, you might also be surprised how well a lower power PP amp would do on your Snells. Decades ago Dynaco used to make a small power amp called the ST35 which made 17 Watt/channel using a pair of EL84s per channel. If one of those is refurbished properly it gives you pause when compared to a good SET.

@atmasphere Prior to the Snells I had Tekton Lores and Klipsch Fortes, both driven by the Korneff amp. Considering both are rated at 98db and 8 ohms, I was shocked when the Snells sounded better, even before I added a sub. I never imagined an amp of such low wattage could drive 90db bookshelf speakers with such authority. If this is distortion I’m hearing, it’s never sounded so good. I’ve had a number of professional musicians listen to my system and they are VERY impressed by how it sounds. I can’t wait for the Coincidents to arrive!

I’m wondering if the Korneff amp delivers exceptionally high current and can handle lower impedances better than most other SET amps. I corresponded with Jeff Korneff many years ago and he indicated his amps are overbuilt with the highest quality transformers and power supplies. Makes me think not all SET amps are created equally…or all watts for that matter.

Makes me think not all SET amps are created equally…or all watts for that matter.

@mootsdude They aren't! It makes a big difference how the power tube is loaded. Some try to get more power, but really if you want the amp to handle more difficult loads, its better to sacrifice a bit of power so that when the speaker impedance dips down, there is in fact a bit of current available.

But Watts are Watts and a sound level pressure meter always shows wut up in that regard. When it sounds loud but the meter is saying its not all that loud, that tells you distortion is making it seem loud.

@ghdprentice The CDC is a totally lost cause. All of these silly studies are assumptions taken by people who hate loud music. Think about it. How do you do a study like that. Are you going to subject people to 95 dB for years to see what happens? How do you know what a person was exposed to, take a history? Do you carry a sound pressure level meter around with you all the time? These are the same people that told us pot makes you sterile and shoved a dangerous and ineffective vaccine down our throats. For 40 years I did comprehensive hearing tests on individuals from every walk of life as a family physician (Not a modern primary car provider) I followed them through decades. Not one of my musicians, who played electric music on stage had hearing loss beyond normal presbycusis. The ones that wound up with hearing aids either had a family history of hearing loss or were subject to a lot of impulse noise from machines and guns. My 72 year old dead head friend still hears fine and I still hear to 16 kHz at last check. I have been listening at 95 dB (when the music calls for it) as long as I can remember. My 95 dB is as measured, dBSPL , not dBFS. Remember dB is a relative scale.

@carlsbad2 I can understand your position. Most systems at 95 dB sound like sh-t. They hurt my ears. But, not because they are inherently bad systems. They are not tuned for louder levels. Mine is tuned for louder levels with the high end being rolled off. Our ears are much more sensitive to high frequencies as volume increases. If your system is balanced at 85 dB it will hurt at 95 dB Even my wife was vacuuming along to Poco at 95 dB yesterday. 95 dB is not that loud. Many concerts hit 105 dB, twice as loud. Now that makes my ears ring, in go the plugs. At the range I wear 30 dB attenuators made by Etymotic. We saw Mark Lettieri two weeks ago in a theater setting. I would estimate it was around 95 dB most of the time and the sound was wonderful. I did not see anyone wearing hearing protection. What 95 dB does is it gets people up and dancing. 85 dB does not.

@mijostyn +10

I think a lot of the resilience over time is genetics, if relatively harmful exposure did occur at some point. I still have the same ears as when i was a young adult (nothing has gone south apparently).

If we went by Agon standards, every musician i know should be deaf. Guys listening to Diana Krall @60db have no idea perhaps of the spl levels associated with live music. If Diana Krall sang a bit too loud in real life, they might just drop their blonde bombshell and run away back to their wives! 😁

I do have a fear of nearfield, headphones, in-ear monitors, etc (i don't use them), i.e., wondered if the fields produced in a smaller space around the ear causes more harm at even lower measured avg spl levels. It could be that spl levels are a lot more forgiving for the ear at more farfield distances, larger rooms, venues, etc.