Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Is this amp any good?

A guy at work told me I should check out this amp. What do you guys think?


http://www.transcendentsound.com/BeastOTL.htm

Looks pretty neat. I like the "summer mode", where you pull out half the tubes to reduce idle power dissipation.

The SE OTL has been on my radar for a long time, as well as the Grounded Grid Preamp. Bruce Rozenblit seems to be a very straight forward, no nonsense kinda guy. I picked up his book, "Audio Reality" a while back and it is a very good read on his philosophy of audio and how things work.

Bob, I read the linked ad. Since the unit has no output transformer it wouldn't suffer from the high output impedance that many tube amplifier designs exhibit. Therefore the frequency response irregularities that can occur with a high output impedance interacting with changes in speaker impedance at varying frequencies wouldn't occur. Within its power capabilities it could be expected to match solid-state designs, and not exhibit a flawed "tube sound". Some of the claims in the description as to special qualities are pure BS, of course.

Is tube sound "flawed"?

Sure, Bob; if an amplifier exhibits any audible sound coloration, rather than simply amplifying the input voltage transparently, that has to be described as a "flaw" if the objective is high fidelity.

Geez, John! What, are you trying to incur the wrath of a certain Southern Californian, or something?

But. . .but. . .but. . .I live in Southern California. . . . . . well, only for a couple more weeks anyway.

Sean, I suspect that the "certain Southern Californian" that Peter had in mind is 30 or so miles south of you. The answer of course would be no, just reporting the facts.

I would encourage you to try it for yourself as that is the only way that you will know if you like it.

I've heard some Tube amps that sound great and others that don't, it is no different that any other piece of equipment.

I'm not looking for anything like that. Just thought I'd start a discussion and see how long it takes you guys to drift off to la-la land.

Bob, I'm one of the few here that runs a tube amp and preamp in my two channel set up. Like Randy alluded to, some sound "tubey" and some less so. Slight alterations can be made by switching out tubes.

I find listening to tubes quite pleasing. Some equipment requires some sort of upkeep, like biasing, but I find it all part of the fun.

I wouldn't play my guitar out of a solid state amp!

>>Just thought I'd start a discussion and see how long it takes you guys to drift off to la-la land.

7 or 8 posts... is that a record ?