Where Have All the 2A3 Amps Gone

The honeymoon's over. 2.5 wpc can only take you so far.

Maybe somebody needs to step up with another amp like Musical Fidelity's Turbocharger line, which added several hundred watts while maintaining the source amp's sonic signature. That might bring some 2A3's off the shelf again. Maybe they should be offered as a package?

Listening to one as I type. Sounds, if not mighty, mighty fine.

I believe the 2A3 has long suffered from looking bad on paper.

The 300B that audiophiles hold in such high esteem gets most of the attention, and making twice as much power likely explains a lot of that. Give the tube a chance, and it would likely win over many a tube lover. It often subjectively feels more powerful than the 300B, has a distinctly more emphatic bottom end, and can even beat the 300B in the midrange. In my experience, the 2A3 does not make a good candidate for SET use. In a parallel single-ended or push-pull topology, it can drive most reasonably efficient loudspeakers to sound pressure levels most any audiophile demands.

They were traded in toward 45 Amps.

I have a 45 SET connected to 101 db / 1W /m speakers and those 2Ws can get loud. But loud is only a small part of what I'm after. I have heard 2A3s on my brand of speaker and loved their magic. They seem to have a huge soundstage and that is what I seek. Plus 2A3s historically have output twice the power of 45s yet 45s seem to be more popular design. I just don't get it.