Ime, 845-based amps.
My Air Tight ATM-211's driving Tannoy GRF90's play rock to insane levels without breaking a sweat.Which SET amps deliver on their usual virtues but also have great bass to rock out on AC/DC and Led Zeppelin?
Or does one actually need an SS amp in addition to a SET amp for their horns?
I defer to my Europe-based, NAT Audio-loving, friends but I think one or more of the NAT Audio SET amplifiers would fit this bill.
I play quite a bit of rock music especially Led Zeppelin, I use Audionote Empress Silver mono blocks which are around 6W SET, these play rock without any issues into Horn speakers
He needs to hear LZ3 on Japanese vinyl
None of the U.K pressings I've heard come close
Otoh, Presence on Jap vinyl is more
What about the original
I guess the answer here is "It depends". If you have really sensitive speakers then rocking and midrange magic can come from quite modest amplifiers and usually for purity, simpler is better.
For rocking hard with SET, I have found that big bottles usually work best; 845, 211, GM70, 813, 805, T100, T1610 and 6C33C (i know it is not as BIG as the others but it sure sounds big) etc. These USUALLY do not have quite the midrange magic of 300B, 2A3, 45 etc. If your speakers are in the low 90db/watt range though you will usually find these smaller triodes gasping a bit and despite the delicacy of the sound they will not rock like the house like the big bottles. Parallel 300B can do a very good job but still doesn't seem to have the impact of a single big bottle.
Here is a list of ones that I have heard that sound very nice in the mids/highs and still rock pretty hard (again with speakers > 90db/watt and easy(ish) loads)
New Audio Frontiers 845SE stereo and monos
New Audio Frontiers Superme 300B (sweet but maybe a bit too soft to Rock hard with anything less than 95db/watt)
NAT SE1, SE2SE and SE3
NAT Transmitter
NAT Single (with 805 output tube)
KR Audio VA340
KR Audio VA350
KR Audio Kronzilla SXI
KR Audio Kronzilla DM monos
Wall Audio Opus M50 monos (great midrange and strong bass)
Ayon Crossfire III (was a bit dry with stock tubes but much more liquid now with NOS tubes Ayon rectifier and swapping 6N30 for 6N6)
Ayon Vulcan Evo
Vaic 52B monos and Vaic/Ayon 52B reference monos
Wavac HE805 (midrange to die for! Spooky good)
Lamm ML2 (that 6C33C does something special I tell you).
Aries Cerat Diana Integrated (dynamic monster with OTL like transparency)
Aries Cerat Concero 65 monos (as above but more of both)
For more delicacy I would think something like the Audio Note P4 balanced monos or Conquest Silver signature might fit the bill. I heard the orginal P4s drive the hell out of Magnepans.
Kondo Gaku Oh (also parallel 300B) or Kegon (parallel 300B) are sublime but maybe not "rockin'" enough.
Audio Aero Prestige monos (haven't heard first hand but a trusted source says they are unreal good sounding...hallucinogenic)
Kondo Ongaku and Gaku On (parallel 211)
Audio Note UK 211 based monos (I have heard Jinro but not in a non-Audio Note system so hard to decouple what I heard).
JJ-322. Nice delicacy and insight but doesn't rock very hard.
Audion Black Shadow: This amp seems promising but I haven't heard it.
You can add to this list Kondo Kagura amps: very, very strong 50 - 211 single ended - watts.
Steve Williams Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator | Ron Resnick Site Co-Owner | Administrator | Julian (The Fixer) Website Build | Marketing Managersing |