SET Asylum

Single Ended Triodes (SETs), the ultimate tube lovers dream.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: Properly designed SE amps

Posted by tube wrangler on October 4, 2021 at 22:30:15:
TRE and Ralph:
Thank you BOTH for the excellent discussions.
You've given readers a good grip on how the
circuits you describe are supposed to work.
I agree with you both, but I DO hear ANYTHING
that complicates a circuit, adding and subtracting
it's own artifacts, no matter what it is.
For instance, CCS. Lots of people use them in many
ways and swear by them-- no argument there.
Trouble is, I and others can hear the extra circuit
operating on the music. With the best circuits, and
speakers, it's subtle, but obvious. I really hate CCS circuits
because I can spot one operating anytime I hear it--
in anyone's amp-- two sounds for every one that's really
there. It's very small, and it's subtle. But over months of
use, CCS circuits eventually become musically boring.
Another most excellent performing Band-Aid. BUT,
you can HEAR the thing doing it's thing....
A super simple amp with a huge power supply can feed
the load without a CCS circuit better, and not color
the musical timing cues.
So------- a few of us break a few rules now and then.
And why do we do that, when everybody knows we're WRONG?
It's only because that's how we get really good
performance.
I've been doing this all my life. When racing Motocross bikes,
I always had more usable power than the other guys in the same class.
They ran more RPM's= more horsepower.
BUT-- I had more low-end torque AND decent hi-rev power, but
not as much as theirs.. TRE would call my engine linear and point
out that my amp isn't truly linear, only my Motocross engine is!
(the engine was putting better power to the ground, sooner).
Most people today listen to a lot of single-taste music,
and build amps for their tastes, which is fine with me.
I don't like that because I want to play anything I want
and have IT sound right-- no matter what it is.
So----ooooo---- what is necessary gets done, trying to
keep it all simple, transparent, and honestly dynamic.
It is perfect? No, it's not perfect. But it is reliable,
and you never want to replace it with something else you've
heard somewhere else.
Overall, not to any particular taste. It's still not
perfect, it's still not absolutely linear, it's still
got some forms of distortions-- like everything else.
It does do one thing right: it plays music like it really
sounds. With your kind understandings, it could make some
sense to you. The reviewers and the guys who play with it
agree-- even if you don't, and I am sometimes at a loss
to explain it all in engineering terms because I don't
groove-out on bringing-up online data-- I figure people
can easily already have that..
After all, when a tube is operated in the lower 3/4 of
it's linear curve, why would it sound good? It might not--
unless the system is transparent enough to convey what's
taking place-- the sound of unstressed physics playing
through minimal interference circuitry..
Anything-- everything-- that you do to force a vacuum
tube to comply with YOUR demands for some coveted thing--
linearity, loading perfection, etc., is audible as
something or somebody tampering with music if the audio
system playing it is sensitive enough so you can tell.
Vacuum tubes-- above all-- operate best when as little
as possible is attached to them, and their operating
temperatures don't stress them in any way.
-Dennis-