Sherwood vs Citation or vintage vs modern production tube amps or preamps..There is no right or wrong answer here as it depends on your needs..If you have efficient speakers such as single drivers, or horns, or even certain ribbons like the Msgnepan Minis,the Sherwood is a great choice because you don't have to buy a preamp or a truck full of cables to connect a preamp to an amp. Is it going spec out like a McShaned Citation or a McShaned Mac amp?? No, but it will be a very good amp that is full bodied and reasonably accurate but not a ton of reserve transients.
OTOH,the Citation 2 loves to drive highly accurate speakers with difficult impedance loads and this is where they really shine.
If you go to a Martin Logan,Quad,or Magnepan forum,you find many Citation 2s and Mc275s,and Heath W6ms driving these modern ESLs and Ribbon speakers.They are rebuilt McShane style but you will notice that these are old vintage amps driving new and expensive loudspeakers.
If McShaned Macs and Citations are becoming the amps of choice for modern ESLs and ribbons,that would pretty much sum up why these tested and true timeless designs are mopping up everything in their path and their iron is what can't be duplicated.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
Edits: 12/10/14
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Topic - We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - Michael Samra 03:06:35 12/10/14 (36)
- Who's we? - Tromatic 20:01:53 12/13/14 (4)
- How odd that "McShaned" is always mentioned in your posts. - Michael Samra 15:35:29 12/17/14 (1)
- RE: How odd that "McShaned" is always mentioned in your posts. - rosendds@frontiernet.net 15:54:22 12/17/14 (0)
- RE: Who's we? - rosendds@frontiernet.net 05:00:09 12/14/14 (1)
- RE: Who's we? - Michael Samra 13:54:44 12/17/14 (0)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - fredtr 17:57:48 12/10/14 (10)
- You're almost right - airtime 07:13:19 12/11/14 (5)
- RE: You're almost right - goldenthal 13:47:26 12/14/14 (0)
- Brilliant insight! - Tadlo 06:32:55 12/12/14 (1)
- No no no!!! - airtime 11:58:24 12/12/14 (0)
- RE: You're almost right - briggs 17:30:00 12/11/14 (1)
- RE: You're almost right - Crazy Dave 13:06:28 12/12/14 (0)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - unclestu 18:46:05 12/10/14 (3)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - airtime 07:41:13 12/11/14 (2)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - goldenthal 11:38:09 12/16/14 (0)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - Crazy Dave 09:17:32 12/11/14 (0)
- RE: We keep hearing all this what's the best tube amp lately. - Crazy Dave 07:51:30 12/10/14 (0)
- Why can't their iron be duplicated? - TWR 07:24:08 12/10/14 (11)
- RE: Why can't their iron be duplicated? - 6bq5 16:09:35 12/17/14 (0)
- Let me rephrase this - Michael Samra 13:35:40 12/10/14 (1)
- maybe - unclestu 20:16:01 12/10/14 (0)
- RE: Why can't their iron be duplicated? - unclestu 13:02:13 12/10/14 (7)
- Surely some of the Japanese stuff (Tamura, Hashimoto) - David Smith 05:00:46 12/11/14 (1)
- RE: Surely some of the Japanese stuff (Tamura, Hashimoto) - rosendds@frontiernet.net 05:23:28 12/11/14 (0)
- RE: Why can't their iron be duplicated? - airtime 13:26:58 12/10/14 (3)
- RE: "my father worked in a factory that made transformers" - 1973shovel 16:45:06 12/10/14 (2)
- Damn auto correct - I've had some real winners with that - airtime 06:07:38 12/11/14 (1)
- I'm glad you had a good sense of humor about it - 1973shovel 10:26:06 12/11/14 (0)
- RE: Why can't their iron be duplicated? - TWR 13:25:51 12/10/14 (0)
- Lafayette KT-550 and Quad 63 ESL - banpuku 05:57:37 12/10/14 (1)
- RE: Lafayette KT-550 and Quad 63 ESL - Crazy Dave 07:40:21 12/10/14 (0)
- A long way from "best" - lokie 04:25:10 12/10/14 (4)
- RE: A long way from "best" - rosendds@frontiernet.net 05:40:11 12/10/14 (3)
- RE: A long way from "best" - Michael Samra 21:29:42 12/10/14 (2)
- RE: A long way from "best" - rosendds@frontiernet.net 03:46:49 12/11/14 (1)
- RE: A long way from "best" - Jareb 04:30:34 12/11/14 (0)