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Re: 417A

Thanks, that is very helpful.

One of the last amps I got from my friend John was a 417a/183. When I had heard it at his house, I was hoping to get it and I did get it shortly after that. It has interesting qualities. It probably would not be my first choice in an amp, but if you have multiple set-ups like I do, then it is something you would want because of the interesting qualities.

I was going to do a post on it at some point. What I observed was almost like an analogy: 300b is to a 45, like a 45 is to the 183 amp here, moving in the direction of reality and pure tone. So being that the 417a is an idht, I might have to rethink my thoughts about idht drivers. They may vary more than I originally thought.

Let me try to describe it. In playing something like John Coltrane's sax, it has a very pure tonal sound. The tonal sound is just riveting, and pure it seems. So it really plays something like John Coltrane sax very well.

The sound doesn't have much width. Kind of a narrow soundstage. Not much bloom or perhaps dimensionality in some ways, but the sound seems more pure than the 45. As the 45 moves more in a realism direction compared to a 300b, this amp surprisingly, seems to outdo the 45 and more towards even more realism and purity.

Since I never had either a 417a nor a 183,I don't know what to attribute to what. I just suspect that the driver has some to do with it, since I know how good WE stuff can be.

The 417a is also a real tiny little tube.


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  • Re: 417A - njjohn 18:00:51 02/14/07 (1)


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