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Tube preamp topologies and music

I am searching for a tube power amplifier. I know very little (nothing) about what the pros and cons of tube topologies as they relate to certain types of music.

as an example, let’s take hard rock/heavy metal. It seems to be the consensus that say 300b single ended amps would be the wrong choice even if you had 100+db efficient speakers. Why is this?

Also, tube compliment. 211? EL84? 300B? I understand that they have power output differences, but what else?

 

I welcome everyone’s input.

gochurchgo
tubes4good
27 posts
 

@allenf1963 

Speedy recovery. 

allenf1963
342 posts
 

@tubes4good -- Thank you very much.  Kind of you.

tubes4good
27 posts
 

The 45 is a beautiful sounding tube.A 45 SET amp will output around 2 watts. My guess us that they will drive the Herseys fine. Maybe limited dynamics.

gochurchgo OP
921 posts
 

What about punchy bass? I’ve was the Leben can do that.

emergingsoul
1,167 posts
 

So much commentary on single ended 300 B tubes and low wattage amplifiers.

@jasonbourne71 has some outstanding commentary but requires great expertise to really understand things.

My take away is that you risk higher distortion when you have low wattage amplifiers. I guess the speakers should be highly efficient but then this may lead to distortion when you want to turn the volume up in a bigger room.

Maybe lower watt amplifiers are good for small rooms where higher wattage amplifiers Will have no problem filling a larger room.

I didn’t follow the impedance curve tracking rationale where if it happens you’ll have increasing distortion.

Impedance as a relates to lower wattage Single end tubes is not easy to understand for me at least but I’m open. I have 16 kt88s on my 300 watt tube monos and there doesn’t seem to be any distortion that I can here.

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