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Hi All,So, over the last couple of days I've had a chance to compare series- vs. parallel-feed w/ the 2A3 pushpull amps I recently finished. One channel remained wired in parafeed and I converted the other to series-feed. I also set the source (PC-based) to downconvert to a mono signal.
Differences were pretty subtle. I think the parafeed brings a bit more transparency/ clarity, handled transients a bit better/ slightly more articulate. I thought this was particularly evident when listening to pianos and the leading edges of notes. The parafeed seemed to have an ever so slightly more extended freq response. I didn't notice much of a timbral difference, except that perhaps the series-feed seemed a bit more warm, which I attributed to the rounder, less-definied sound.
The one drawback to parafeed is what I perceived as coloration from the coupling cap; there was from time-to-time a bit of edginess, maybe almost stridency with voices. I didn't spend much on the caps in there now, they're from Erse. One way or another, I'll need to do something about that.
Overall, I'm not sure it makes sense to go the parafeed PP route. I think there is certainly some performace gains, but it's not a small cost for two pairs of plate chokes plus four nice parafeed coupling caps. If I had to do it over, I'd probably go series-feed. That said, the chokes are a sunk cost for me now, so I'll be sticking with parafeed, FWIW.
Regards,
John
Edits: 10/24/09Follow Ups:
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