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Re: Audion Silver Nights

209.239.215.8

Posted by RandallB on July 7, 2000 at 22:02:23

In Reply to: Audion Silver Nights posted by JayD on July 6, 2000 at 09:56:10:

Note: due to my inexperience in posting on Audio Asylum, I inadvertently violated some of the posting rules in my first followup to this posting, and evidently a complaint from someone resulted in my followup being removed.

I have read the posting rules carefully and have done my best to comply with them in this followup. If I get bounced again, I'll find out what I did wrong and post another followup that complies with the posting rules. I'm a new inmate of the asylum, thanks in advance for your consideration.

Question: Does anyone have any experience with the parallel or push-pull versions of these 300B amps?

Answer: I have experience with both the parallel and push-pull versions of the Audion PSEE and PPE monoblock amplifiers. The parallel version is known as the Silver Night PSEE, the push-pull version is known as the Silver Night PPE.

Question: I am looking for more triode power (currently have a 8-watt 300B amp) and was wondering what these amps sounded like.

Answer: Here is the power rating and tube complement of each model
300B Silver Night export PSEE, Parallel Single-ended mono export, 15 watts Class A into 8 ohms at 240VAC, 2 x 300B, 1 x 6922, 1 x 5687

300B Silver Night export PPE, Push-Pull mono export, 25 watts Class A into 8 ohms at 240VAC, 2 x 300B, 1 x 6922, 1 x 5687

The sound of the Audion Silver Nights PPE monoblocks is rich and powerful. While providing a tremendous amount of detail and nuance, they are not clinical, I would characterize them as neutral, not forgiving, not unforgiving. They tend to reproduce whatever is provided to them in an involving, musical way. Triodes typically have some 2nd order harmonic distortion, which provides a little sweeter sound, but the Silver Nights PPE's are not "lush", and are much faster than most tube amps I have ever heard. By fast, I mean that the full bandwidth of a transient signal is reproduced in phase, so all the upper harmonics of a fundamental tone are presented in phase with the fundamental, not out of phase as with many "slow" tube amps. This speed is what provides an extended and detailed high frequency response which would otherwise be smeared and smothered by out-of-phase wavefront generation throughout the frequency band. The PPE's are very "punchy" in a clean, musical way, very involving and rhythmic.

The Audion Silver Night PSEE (parallel single-ended) monoblocks have more 300B "sparkle" and air, are 15 watts instead of 25, and so will not play as loudly with same loudspeaker as the PPE, and while they present a tuneful, musical bass, they do not have the powerful punch in the gut bass of the PPE. As fast as the Audion PPE is, the PSEE is even faster, providing a somewhat deeper soundstage and more of a holographic presentation, with excellent stereo imaging deep into the soundstage, a little deeper and wider than the PPE's.

The Audion PPE is a great all-around amp from a musical genre perspective, it plays every type of music well: classical, rock and roll, acoustic jazz, chamber music, whatever. When provided with appropriate program material, it really kicks ass! (in a good way). With the PPE, the words "snap,", "pop," "smack", "whack", and "kick" come to mind.

The Audion PSEE is more detailed and airy: on vocals, every single spittle bubble, the inrush of air as the vocalist fills his/her lungs, the vocalist's changing position relative to the microphone can be discerned. The PSEE also has better micro-dynamics and nuance, you can hear subtle changes in embouchure on wind instruments, the angle of attack of the bow on stringed instruments, the differences between different violinists doing ensemble pizzacatto (they all do it differently, you know!). The PSEE is never clinical, never artificially "etched". While it works well with all types of music, its qualities really manifest themselves best on un-processed stereo recordings of acoustic jazz, vocals, chamber music, acoustic guitar and similar types of music involving unprocessed acoustic vocal and instrumental performances.

As they approach the clipping point, the PSE's and PPEE's both clip gracefully and without harsh artifacts. When used with a speaker that requires more than the PSEE's 15 watts or the PPE's 25 watts, they just run out of steam, no objectionable output, they start compressing the dynamics somewhat, sounded a little congested at the clipping point.

Question: Also, any comments on reliability/construction would be appreciated.

The Audion 300B PSEE and 300B PPE are very simple and reliable designs. The design of both models is unchanged since their introduction about ten years ago. All Audion products are so reliable that the U.S. distributor will inspect and bring any used Audion product up to specification for a nominal fee, and provide a five-year warranty thereafter. At the end of the five-year warranty period, the items may again be brought up to spec and another five year warranty is provided. The distributor would not do this unless Audion products were reliable. I don't know of any other tube product that can be re-warranted in this fashion, ad infinitum.

I think that the Audion 300B PSEE and PPE amplifiers are the best examples of parallel single-ended and push-pull 300B monoblocks at their price and several times their price currently available. Either one will provide many years of involving, musical enjoyment.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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