I prefer my Cayin A-88T's ultralinear 45 wpc to triode 22 wpc. My horn speakers are very very efficient, so I do not think it is related to the extra power, there seems to be a fuller more natural sound, similar to the change from 6550 tubes to KT88 tubes.
I hate to say it, but now I think maybe I like my amp in ultralinear mode versus triode
It's a Cary V-12; it features a dozen EL34s and each pair has a switch in between them that configures that pair to either triode or ultralinear. In full triode Cary listed in the specs that it makes 50 wpc and in full ultralinear 100 wpc. For most of the twenty three years that I have owned this amp I have always felt that I preferred triode except for the occasions that I wanted to full out blast (it has literally been many years since I've felt the need to full out blast).
However, today I experimented with a couple of things in my system, and after listening to the same "Jazz Essentials" (compilation) red book CD a couple of times all the way through, the next thing I experimented with was switching to full ultralinear.
Maybe there was more "PRaT"? (Which is a term I am still not sure that I completely grasp.) Maybe . . . but what I do feel I noted for sure was that the imaging (particularly the imaging in the center) had more weight (meatier?) and was presented more forward, which I actually like.
I put a few more hours in (one more time with Jazz Essentials, Holly Cole/It Happened One Night, Dave's True Story/Sex Without Bodies, selected tracks from Rebecca Pigeon/The Raven and Once Blue/self titled and Norah Jones/Feels Like Home) after switching to ultralinear. (No booze during this session, just coffee.) The jury is still out on this, but I do have some CDs in mind that I want to listen to over the next few days as I continue to evaluate.
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Thank you for saying it. This was my initial thought. It's easy to take the consensus opinion even when it may be wrong. I suspect we all have done it about something. But it shows the importance of testing everything for ourselves.
I was just pulling your leg. Its a bad habit I have. |
I found that issue of Stereophile, and what a looker that amp was! Dual monoblocks in one chassis, rack handles, meters, switches, knobs, a dozen output tubes . . . that, unfortunately, was probably a lot of the reason I was initially intrigued with it. (A guy I used to work with used to say I was like the Indians who sold Manhattan for some shiny trinkets. He may have been somewhat correct.) Anyway, Anyway, I also found the flier from Mesa for The Baron that the dealer gave me (I had the flyer inside the Stereophile) and Mesa was saying that the amp utilized "pentode." As far as which mode I preferred, well, I spent very little time in full triode or full pentode, most of the weekend was spent in 1/3 triode 2/3 pentode per dealer's advice, and I actually was intrigued and initially liked the presentation until I did the A/B I typed about. At the time, I was using a B&K digital HT (prologic back then) preamp, and I had a dealer in Philadelphia who had set me up with that first system (the B&K and the SLA70) and I talked to him about the experience and maybe upgrading to a pair of SLM100s to get the sound stage without the "smokiness" and he told me (and I will have to paraphrase) that 'the Baron is a chameleon' I do remember he did use the word "chameleon" and the sound I heard was due to the level of preamp. Which may have been true. But I didn't buy SLM100s from him. What I did do not a whole lot later was to buy (through the classifieds in the back of Stereophile) a secondhand pair of ARC VTM120s, four 6550s each, 100 wpc in NONSWITCHABLE UL. And I like those ARCs, I really did; they would rock out (and I mean ROCK OUT) or whisper . . . and it was CLEAN sound and that was with the B&K in front. And then, another aside, but still another local dealer had a second hand modded SLP90 that I took home for a weekend, and then and there I learned the difference a preamp can make. The reason I didn't keep those ARCs (I still have the SLA70, btw) is that they had a random habit of blowing a grid resistor on start up. And taking one of them down and desoldering and resoldering grid resistors is no way to start a listening session. I used to grit my teeth and cross my fingers when I flipped the switches. Anyway, when Sterophile reviewed the V12 I was intrigued by the switchable from triode to UL feature and I knew that back then (in the Dennis Had/Kirk Owens days of Cary) I found my SLA70 to be reliable and Cary's tech support (when needed) was superb, so I took the plunge and bought a V12 from a dealer in Colorado, sight unseen. And that's how I got to the V12. Thanks for the great post, and with your V12, did you roll any tubes besides the EL34s? Like 6550s for example? I do note that in the owner's manual, Dennis Had was saying one could do that. I have about three good quads of 6550s for my SLA70 (six of NOS Tung Sols 6550 from Andy in Michigan, a quad of Svetlanta 6550Bs, and I think a quad of KT88s, but I'd have to look to be sure, hat were branded "Tesla" that I got from Audio Advisor). I was thinking of possibly biasing the amp for two tubes aside someday, and trying it in UL with 6550s? I tried four tubes aside once back in '18 or '19, but I have to confess that this was back in the days when I was swearing by triode, and I wasn't crazy about it.
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@artemus_5 , you asked a legitimate question--I didn't take any offense to it. After all the time I spent swearing that triode was a superior sound, I hated to admit that after yesterday I feel that I may have been mistaken. |
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