I'll also add, in reference to "marketing," that IMHO a "tube-swappers dream" is definitely a marketing ploy, in that there is no way an amp like that can be truly optimized for each tube--as Ralph cogently points out. I don't believe there's any harm being done here, but anyone with a technical understanding of tube amplifiers (and I'm barely on the periphery of that circle) will shudder at the idea of a "one-size-fits-all" amplifier. ;-)
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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@dogearedaudio , I just took a look at the specs listed in the V12 owner’s manual and under feedback it says "zero." I do remember on another "switchable" amp I referred to, the Mesa Baron, on the back panel there were knobs to adjust feedback. I do not recall playing around with that particular adjustment during the two days that I auditioned that amp. As far as "tube roller’s dream", I should clarify that I dredged that up from my memory (which is USUALLY pretty good) but since I cannot find the blurb for whichever amp it was, I probably should not be providing a designer/manufacturer’s quotes that I cannot find to reference back to. |
To your point, while you can run different output tubes in many of DH’s creations, stemming from his former life with Cary Audio, and recent times creating Inspire, like the early years of Cary V12, V12R, or SLA-70 @immatthewj is referencing periodically - his amps were/are designed and listened to with a very particular output tube in mind. in the case of the V12/R. It’s the classic EL34 tube, paired with particular transformers and input/driver tubes that make for an interesting blend an sound. Today, If you splurge and buy one of Dennis’ small and more recent 300B amps, you buy it with the new re-issues WE300B tubes, and you pay a bit extra for it and that’s how the designer likes it and wants it to be. Only comes with these tubes. Falling on my own sword, my existing mono amps were designed with specific power transformers and plate voltage (650v) and such to run TungSol KT150 output tubes in their optimum operating window. With my speakers, I enjoy both sets but also really like how KT120s sound in these amps. Go figure, lol. :) |
FWIW, Gary Dodd, shortly before he died in 2015, was contracted by a very rich person who heard his "Blue Monster" amps:
to build the "best sounding amplifier possible; even better than the Blue Monsters." What he came up with was monoblocks with 4 KT77 output tubes run in OPTIMIZED ultralinear mode with 2 6BL7 input tubes; custom would massive power supply and output trannies, huge inductors on both input and output stages, 700 volts on the plates and Dueland CAST coupling caps. He died before finishing the amps. 6 years later, his great friend and talented tube audio builder, Charlie Cocci, completed the two amps. Charlie, who has been building tube amps for at least 50 years, stated "These are not only the best soundfing amps I've ever built, they're the best sounding amps I've ever heard...and I've heard a lot of amps!" FWIW. Those amps are in my living room. The Dodd Audio Balanced Power Supply that is shown in the 2nd photo powering the Blue Monsters now powers the amps in my living room. I'm a very lucky person. Confirmation bias confession? I don't think so, I think I just agree with Charlie. FWIW. |
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