Interesting article on SET amps

[RGA]

Feanor

Yes but it sounds veiled coming from a SET guy. That might make you think. The Sugden A48b solid state amp I had sounded veiled as well - mind you in a good way because it's very nice to lesser recordings and not so veiled to ruin excellent recordings. Nevertheless, it could be bettered.

If you're ever in Victoria BC for a holiday (and it is one of the world's great vacation spots) spend a day (just not Sunday or Monday) and listen to your 1.6 or the new 1.7 on an AN amp - then against any SS or digital amp they sell - they sell Meridian, Sim Audio, Bryston, Classe, Ayre.

There is a reason they waste the added electricity and tube life demoing the speakers on a much more costly to run tube amp of sub 20 watts.

And because people will write it off as AN love fest, a similar result with Wyetech Labs running B&W N801 speakers. The N801s are harder to drive that the Magnepans for SET amps but taking high volume listening off the table the actual sound quality was quite excellent. Never heard the speaker sound so good.

[Feanor]

Feanor

Yes but it sounds veiled coming from a SET guy. That might make you think. The Sugden A48b solid state amp I had sounded veiled as well - mind you in a good way because it's very nice to lesser recordings and not so veiled to ruin excellent recordings. Nevertheless, it could be bettered. ...

So you've heard the Monarchy? Which model? The Sugden reputation of sounding veiled goes way back, yet you loved the A21/A21a for a long time. Yeah, like the Sugden, I quess, the Monarchys were favourable to less-good recordings.

I'll repeat my story: The Monarchys beat my previous Bel Canto on 70% of recordings -- but they were all my worst recordings. My current CDA amp is better than the Monarchy on 70+% of recordings including all my best recordings.

...
If you're ever in Victoria BC for a holiday (and it is one of the world's great vacation spots) spend a day (just not Sunday or Monday) and listen to your 1.6 or the new 1.7 on an AN amp - then against any SS or digital amp they sell - they sell Meridian, Sim Audio, Bryston, Classe, Ayre. ...

Have they got Class D Audio amps?

...
There is a reason they waste the added electricity and tube life demoing the speakers on a much more costly to run tube amp of sub 20 watts.

And because people will write it off as AN love fest, a similar result with Wyetech Labs running B&W N801 speakers. The N801s are harder to drive that the Magnepans for SET amps but taking high volume listening off the table the actual sound quality was quite excellent. Never heard the speaker sound so good.

The Wyetech have quite a reputation among connoisseurs; I love to hear them.

[RGA]

Soundhounds sells Wyetech Labs. They prefer Audio Note so if you like Wyetech you can probably get it cheap cause they want to get rid of them.

They send a salesman to CES and a few other shows yearly - if they like something they may pick it up - if they don't sell Class D there is a reason. Although I am sure there are class D in some of the subs they sell.

Their website has a list of most of some the brands they sell - I say some because there is a lot not up there yet.

Products

Maybe there is Class D.

I don't recall the Monarchy model - this was a long time back when there was a craze for the Bel Canto and Panasonic amps - Monarchy and another brand. I don't comment on the Monarchy too much because it was just a power amp - and to me the preamp makes more of a difference - and the preamp wasn't from Monarchy. I don't recall the number except that it had a big power switch on the front and handles - circa 2004.

Bel Canto I didn't like and that was an integrated so it's easier to talk about it. I compared it against a second hand the SS YBA Integra DT which killed it on PMC and Martin Logan speakers.

At that time I was considering the YBA Integra DT cause the used priced was nice. FWIW the amp I liked the least in my sessions were from Copland - a respected tube maker but it sounded too much like stereotypical tubes.

The Sugden A48b which I had was a class A/B 70 watt amp and it sounds far more like a tube amp than the A21a.

I think it comes down to what you are listening for in music - the instruments themselves or the spatial cues. I compared the A48b to a brute force SS amp from Musical FIdelity. The latter was something like 150watts per channel and had tremendous "air" and a larger left to right stage. Although I feel such amps that have a lot of "air' have no actual reality to anything I've heard live. The Sugden had more weight and depth on basses and piano and cello and more tone and decay and seemed beefier and more solid. The MF was easy peezy breezy and and again had a pronounced larger stage. I don;t know but I got the uneasy feeling as if it was "stretching" the stage to make it artificially big - like a television that stretches a pan and scan seen to make it fit the rectangular dimensions thus making people fatter.

The thing is there is a taste factor - the guy who traded in the A48b traded it in for the Musical Fidelity (I believe the A300). One sales guy like the MF better the others in the room liked the A48b better.

On piano to me there is no comparison but on some of the opera's where there is a big stage you could visualize them moving across the stage - the Sugden did it too but it wasn't as grand. On the other hand when you had a bass line - you could rally feel it and it had physical weight. The Bryston amps are just the same as the MF amps - thin and brittle sounding but airy and big sounding for stage affects. Which is probably why they get mated to Magnepan which IMO is their greatest strength (staging). The A21a is between those two based on my audition of the circa 1992 model - not the newer ones which seem to have more complaints.

I'm not opposed to class D - perhaps I will run across one I like. I like the cheap and cheerful Class T amps I've been reviewing. Although to be honest that's a 2 for 2 result for me.

[tube fan]

Three of my 4 favorite rooms at the CAS 2010 and 2011 shows were powered by SET amps: The Audio Note, the Teresonic, and the Sonist. My absolute favorite was the Sonist, but then they were playing analogue tapes as the source!