I hate to say it, but now I think maybe I like my amp in ultralinear mode versus triode

@ghdprentice: I, and presumably atmasphere, and all other rational thinkers, would rationally conclude that your amps are optimized for triode topology...and, necessarily, that the ultralinear topology was added, presumably as a gimmick, to presumably, attract more purchasers. Let’s hope so anyway, as the other option is that the amps are not optimized for either topology and that you and the other folks just like the same not optimized topology over the other not optimized topology.

That is exactly what you said.

So if the manufacturer spends the extra money for a UL winding they would, seemingly, have optimised it for the tube type and circuit.

@viridian This assumes that the manufacturer knew about the patent and designed according to it rather than the tradition that developed trying to get around it. In a way, David Hafler might be the one responsible for that; he was one of the inventors when he was at Acrosound, to whom the patent was assigned. When Hafler moved to Dynaco the patent didn't go with him but he knew full well how to get around it. So its reasonable to assume that Dynaco OPTs are not optimized.

So a rational thinker, in possession of that knowledge, might conclude that the UL taps were improperly placed, causing the triode setting to work better. However, a rational thinker might also wonder if the OPT had windings to accommodate the difference in the plate load impedances required since that value for a given tube is different for a pentode as opposed to the same tube wired in triode.

I'm certainly wondering that. Whether I'm a rational thinker is another matter.

@emergingsoul , at on or about the 16th reply to this thread, at my request, @mulveling  did provide a description of the different (triode, ultralinear, and pentode) topologies..

@mulveling 

Out of all the possible questions to be asked on this forum, this is one I would never have expected before now. No, UL is not solid state. And it’s about as much a marketing term as "gravity" or "electromagnetism".

You have a way with words.

Thanks Ralph, you are always a breath of fresh air.

Yesterday afternoon going into the evening I put five more hours in in the UL mode.  I note a "fuller" presence in UL that I was getting in triode mode.

I won't go  blow by blow into yesterdays session, but I'll mention a couple of things that stood out (from yesterday).  I have been planning (for some time) on listening to to a couple of SACDs (Jacintha Goes To Hollywood and Patricia Barber/Modern Cool) but I never made it past digging out red book CDs that caught my eye and then my ear.  I saw a movie a few nights ago on TV that reminded me I owned Chris Isaac/Heart Shaped World which I bought in 1990 but never listened to all the way through.  Probably over produced for my usual tastes, but the sound was was room filling and it sounded quite good.  I bought Brandy Carlile/The Story quite a few years ago because I heard her sing The Story on my car radio, and I thought that I would like to hear the choruses in which she was literally screaming on my system, which, in theory should sound way better than  the AM/FM radio in whichever vehicle I was motoring about in at the time.  But the playback on that one never met my expectations.  I put in that CD (The Story) yesterday specifically to hear her sing The Story, and I can honestly say that I was struck by the visceral impact of the choruses more in UL than I had been in triode.  I actually wound up listening to the whole CD, and it does have a nice sound.  (It was one of the CDs that kept me from getting to those two SACDs by Jacintha and Patricia Barber, but I am leading off with them tonight.)

However, with all that typed, I will also say that my initial reactions could be the "new toy syndrome"; I am admittedly prone to that infection.  Also, as noted before, my hearing is changing and not for the better, I have introduced different speakers to my system, my system now resides in a different room than it did when I first set it up, and the way I listen has changed significantly over the years..