Tube amplifiers and interstage transformers

Atmasphere,
I understand and agree with your post.My point is the common argument against tubes is their generally higher distortion and less than impressive measurements. It was my way to encourage alan to rely on his own hearing rather than what some pre conceived prediction or claim what the result will be.Alan says his SET amp is amazing and he reached that conclusion based on his ears.He did it the right way.
Regards,

My experience is similar to Charles1dad's, in that my favorites are SET amps, especially 300B SETs. I've heard superb SETS with interstage transformer, and superb SETs with interstage cap.

Wavelength offers(I think,could be wrong) both IT and non IT versions of their excellent SET
amplifiers.I'd love to hear Gordon Rankin's opinion on how the two options
vary and why.
Regards,

Charles1dad, something that has puzzled me for a long time is the also 'common argument' that triodes are the most linear form of amplification known to man, yet they have more distortion??

The fact is that they don't. Try putting a transistor in a single-ended zero feedback configuration and see what happens :)

The 'common argument' is apparently false, and should be addressed where ever it appears.

We found that by adding feedback to our OTLs we could get the distortion down well below that of conventional transistor amps, but in doing so the amp also took on some of the sterile qualities (read: brighter, less musical) that are hallmarks of amps with feedback. We chose at that point (about 1980) to eschew feedback; if the speaker thus did not allow the amp to sound right on that speaker, the conclusion is that the speaker would never sound right with *any* amplifier! This has limited our market, but the upside is that if a person sets up the amp right its hard to beat.

SETs have a similar 'weakness' (although I regard it as a musical strength) on the same account.

Transistors 'measure better' on account of the fact that the 'measurement' has almost nothing to do with human hearing rules and are simple a method of making the amp look good on paper.

Thanks Atmasphere, I realized some time ago that the present measurement standards and the sound quality have hardly any correlation. In some ways to a degree it's almost an inverse relationship. Stereophile's JA measurements compare to Art Dudley's listening impressions is an example.Measurements do have a relevant use, they just aren't useful as a predictor of sound quality. I don't know why the laws of human hearing are'nt appreciated more and respected.
Regards,