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SET sound without a lot of money

Any experience or opinions on the Almarros, Music Ref RM10 mkii, or the Joule Electra Stargate amplifires? Looking for a good SET experience without overly-colored sound or congestion, while pushing enough current to excercise existing 91db speakers at low to moderate volume. I would like to swap one of these occassionally into my system without having to rebuild (re-buy)a whole new system to accomodate a tradional low-watt 2A3, 45, or 300b amp.
erfranke
cjwessing's avatar
cjwessing
32 posts
 
I'm really impressed with my Sophia Baby Electric which I picked up for around $400.
erfranke OP
24 posts
 
The speakers are Vienna Acoustic Bethoven Concert Grands. one silk-dome tweeter, one mid-range, and 3 six-inch bass drivers per speaker
inna
7,296 posts
 
Let's cut the shit. There is no good SET sound for not a lot of money.
amandarae
512 posts
 
Let's cut the shit. There is no good SET sound for not a lot of money.

Maybe, but I for one do not agree to your statement.

If you cannot build one, what you said is probably true but if you can, and understand what you are doing, then you can have a true SET that is most likely better sounding than what is commercially available and with better components to booth and lesser in price overall. Most if not all of the popular true SET amp manufacturer, Shindo or AudioNote for example, started via DIY.

I mentioned "true" SET because to me, a real SET sound comes from DHT output tubes! IMO, no IDHT SET, like Pentode strapped etc. has the real SET sound. In other words, them are just "wanna be SET's" he,he :)
armstrod
612 posts
 
If you're talking about the Almarro A205A, like the RM-10 it's not an SET amp. It's actually a single ended pentode:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/almarro4/mk2.html

Sounds great, though; I owned one for a couple of years.

The Almarro 318 is indeed an SET.

David
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