Just a few words of caution here-- I appreciate what you're
saying-- all of us must be practical after all. You are, however, making too many assumptions here: (1) That a few simple parts will get you a good S.E. amp.
I'm afraid NOT! Every S.E. I ever bought lacked "fun-factor"-- while having an emotional
"connection to music", they lacked DRIVE, PACE, RHYTHM and ultimate wide-band dynamics. They just DID NOT WORK for me.... that is for me.... I understand that
S.E. operation DOES connect one to music better than Push/Pull. I think that is a given that we all know and love. But, that's not enough for me. I wanted POWER, GLORY, DYNAMICS.
I also wanted that wide-band (musical wide-band area) that a good Push/Pull has that S.E. amps did NOT have.. the S.E.'s truncated ultimate highs, and made a totally fake-- kind of bass-- euphonic, but not really following the musical groove at all.... That's OK if you like jazz, or human voices, but what if you like a
good marching band, as I do, and what if you like fast-paced fun-music
such as a good Polka Band? What if you're hooked on the internal dynamics of a good Concert-Grand piano, being played fast, hard, and dynamic by a
young, "hot" genius? That is High-Power, Push/Pull territory-- normally. But, I wanted a LOW POWER S.E. to do ALL THAT. Getting the requisite speakers to handle that was Job One, so I built those... for myself at first. I had to have very low signal losses, so I knew I had to get rid of
all signal impediments-- so Line-Stages got the boot real quick. I tried all sorts of passive preamps-- they all lacked dynamics, so I
built one that is VERY dynamic. How? Stopped signal losses at every turn. Cables and interconnects. Another severe problem area. I fixed that with Siltech, Kimber, and Mil-Spec conductors, carefully applied. Amplifiers? I had to have all of those well-preserved signal sources reproduced accurately with all dynamics intact. Dynamics? Well, first, power supplies had to respond very quickly to signal demand and they had
to have the ability to provide heavy momentary currents into a load-- if that wasn't done fast enough, and couldn't re-charge fast enough, the music wouldn't flow as it should. Special chokes were engineered, power transformers were way over-specced. Power losses were addressed with heavy-gauge Siltech silver, and leads
to everything were made short. Parts were placed where they worked best,
and interfered least. No wire was allowed to be near any other wire, or
allowed to come close to anything..... All sorts of skew-angles were developed, along with 3-dimensional hand-wiring, which necessitated a deep chassis. Photos will show these advanced construction methods as
s "Rat's Nest"-- they're not-- they are what is necessary. All of these parts can't be ty-wrapped, they can't be bolted down, they
can't touch, or be near ANYTHING else, and wiring can't be neatly bundled
together, or your amp will DIE sonically. Parts count is large because all capacitors are either Oil-Filled, or super-quality Tin, or Silver, or Silver/Gold/Oil types or are Dynamicaps. Since there are no coupling caps, all of these caps are used at power supply usage points and for cathode bypassing. The number of these not-so-cheap caps is typically, 32 to 40 units per amp. This changes over time as some caps are no longer manufactured, and others take their place. Some really good capacitors may require only 3 or 4 smaller bypasses, another may require up to 7 or 8. Trying to build a S.E. amp that can compete with the best (and much simpler to build) Push/Pulls just doesn't happen unless you accomplish a smooth, wideband result at every cathode, and at every tube's plate supply. Of course, you have to mount your iron transformers. You can just bolt them onto something like everybody else, and suffer the loss of at least half of your music, or you can spend some money and mount all iron on stepped brass tripods. This has to be heavy hardware, or your transformers can shake loose if your amps are shipped. It's all brass, and there's a LOT of it! All of this has to come from the few suppliers who still sell it-- or, if you're in a large city, you will find SOME of it locally.... There's lots more to tell you-- but at least you now know that a good S.E. Is not going to come cheap! -Dennis-
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