Sometimes good things come out of bad situations. The last time my Jadis Defy 7 MKII suffered a tube failure, I had to press my back-up SS amp into service while I was waiting for a new bank of 3 matched KT-88 tubes from Kevin Deal to arrive. The funny thing is, the back-up amp hasn’t left my system for more than a night as the Jadis just can’t come off the bench and stay in the starting line-up anymore. And if the Jadis was the better sounding amp, it would be back full-time in my system. I find all of this slightly embarrassing. Giving up my Jadis for an old SS amp is kind of like getting caught by your buddies out on the town on a date with a fat girl.
And no one is more surprised than me, and I’m surprised on many different levels. I swore off SS amps back in the 1980s after I heard how much better the midrange was through an ST-70 vice the juiced up Hafler DH-220 I was using at the time. Since the ST-70, there has been a long list of tube amps that I have owned: ARC D-76, D-76A, D-70 MKII, D-79A, and the VT-100 MKII. I have owned the Quicksilver V4s and a pair of the Quicksilver MS-190s with triode boards. I still have my Jadis Defy 7 MKII. I am no stranger to tube amps.
During the time that I have owned the above mentioned tube amps, I have had numerous SS amps grace my system and I was always happy to pack them back up and take them back to the guy who wanted me to hear them. There is one I would love to have back and take another listen to, and that is the Symphonic Line amp. I heard that amp in my system before I bought the Definitive Technology BP-7000SC speakers I now own. I had previously bought an older McIntosh SS amp to use as a backup for when my tube amp went down (and make no mistake, your tube amps will go down at some point). The few times I pressed the McIntosh into service, I couldn’t stand it and the point of having it as a backup amp became pointless so I sold it.
I have mentioned this before, but my backup SS amp is the *lowly* Phase Linear 400 Series 2. Not only is this a SS amp, it’s an old SS amp. The original PL 400 was designed by Bob Carver. I believe the Series 2 was made after Carver left Phase Linear and the Series 2 incorporated some design changes that made it more stable and sound better. I think there was even a further design change when Pioneer bought Phase Linear and the last of the 400 Series 2 amps rolled off the production line. I don’t know which version of the Series 2 that I have, I just know I have the *right* one.
Now I know some of you have owned the PL-400 before and scoff at it (and do tell whether it was the original or Series 2). And I know there are plenty more of you that haven’t heard it and will still scoff at it because it’s old, cheap, and just can’t be any good. I can’t speak for what the original 400 sounded like; I can only talk about what my Series 2 sounds like. If you have owned or spent considerable time with a Series 2 and you want me to tell me it’s a bad sounding amp, I will just smile.
My system has never sounded better since I have been using the PL 400 Series 2 amp. This amp is a marriage made in heaven with my speakers. Even though my speakers have a high sensitivity and some weird impedance (*compatible* with 8 ohms says the specs. What the hell does that mean?) and should be a perfect match with a tube amp, this SS amp just crushes other tube amps with these speakers. My speakers love the power and current drive from this amp. My last SS amp I owned was the Pass Labs X-250 which never sounded worth a crap on my speakers and so I sold it. I think now the bad sound was caused by a mismatch between my tube preamp’s output impedance and the input impedance of the X-250. The X-250 weighs around 100 lbs and puts out 250 watts that sounded like 20 watts at my house. PL 400 Series 2 puts out almost as much power as the X-250 and weighs less than half.
And none of the above would matter if the damn thing didn’t sound so good. And it does. I think it’s time I got off the amplifier merry-go-round because with my speakers, I have the right amplifier. All of my sources have never sounded better. I can’t believe how much time I spend listening to digital music now. Great digital recordings don’t sound like great digital recordings. They just sound like great recordings. And I didn’t know I would ever say that. I never knew how good my digital rig was until I put this amp into my system. And I have to give some props to the E-MU 0404 DAC. This cheap DAC sounds incredible. When you factor in that you can buy one for around $200, it’s crazy good.
When I think about the fact that I can probably buy two PL 400 Series 2 amps on the used market for less than the cost of a new set of tubes for my Jadis Defy 7 MKII, it kind of puts things into perspective. I guess there is some irony that I’m driving the PL with a tube preamp that I have over $5k invested in.
When I ask myself why everything suddenly sounds the best it ever has, there is only one answer. So now I’m happy that my Jadis blew an output tube. Otherwise, the PL would still be sitting on a shelf in my workshop room and I wouldn’t know how good my system could really sound. And trust me, if all you heard was my Jadis, you would most probably think the system sounded very good.
And no one is more surprised than me, and I’m surprised on many different levels. I swore off SS amps back in the 1980s after I heard how much better the midrange was through an ST-70 vice the juiced up Hafler DH-220 I was using at the time. Since the ST-70, there has been a long list of tube amps that I have owned: ARC D-76, D-76A, D-70 MKII, D-79A, and the VT-100 MKII. I have owned the Quicksilver V4s and a pair of the Quicksilver MS-190s with triode boards. I still have my Jadis Defy 7 MKII. I am no stranger to tube amps.
During the time that I have owned the above mentioned tube amps, I have had numerous SS amps grace my system and I was always happy to pack them back up and take them back to the guy who wanted me to hear them. There is one I would love to have back and take another listen to, and that is the Symphonic Line amp. I heard that amp in my system before I bought the Definitive Technology BP-7000SC speakers I now own. I had previously bought an older McIntosh SS amp to use as a backup for when my tube amp went down (and make no mistake, your tube amps will go down at some point). The few times I pressed the McIntosh into service, I couldn’t stand it and the point of having it as a backup amp became pointless so I sold it.
I have mentioned this before, but my backup SS amp is the *lowly* Phase Linear 400 Series 2. Not only is this a SS amp, it’s an old SS amp. The original PL 400 was designed by Bob Carver. I believe the Series 2 was made after Carver left Phase Linear and the Series 2 incorporated some design changes that made it more stable and sound better. I think there was even a further design change when Pioneer bought Phase Linear and the last of the 400 Series 2 amps rolled off the production line. I don’t know which version of the Series 2 that I have, I just know I have the *right* one.
Now I know some of you have owned the PL-400 before and scoff at it (and do tell whether it was the original or Series 2). And I know there are plenty more of you that haven’t heard it and will still scoff at it because it’s old, cheap, and just can’t be any good. I can’t speak for what the original 400 sounded like; I can only talk about what my Series 2 sounds like. If you have owned or spent considerable time with a Series 2 and you want me to tell me it’s a bad sounding amp, I will just smile.
My system has never sounded better since I have been using the PL 400 Series 2 amp. This amp is a marriage made in heaven with my speakers. Even though my speakers have a high sensitivity and some weird impedance (*compatible* with 8 ohms says the specs. What the hell does that mean?) and should be a perfect match with a tube amp, this SS amp just crushes other tube amps with these speakers. My speakers love the power and current drive from this amp. My last SS amp I owned was the Pass Labs X-250 which never sounded worth a crap on my speakers and so I sold it. I think now the bad sound was caused by a mismatch between my tube preamp’s output impedance and the input impedance of the X-250. The X-250 weighs around 100 lbs and puts out 250 watts that sounded like 20 watts at my house. PL 400 Series 2 puts out almost as much power as the X-250 and weighs less than half.
And none of the above would matter if the damn thing didn’t sound so good. And it does. I think it’s time I got off the amplifier merry-go-round because with my speakers, I have the right amplifier. All of my sources have never sounded better. I can’t believe how much time I spend listening to digital music now. Great digital recordings don’t sound like great digital recordings. They just sound like great recordings. And I didn’t know I would ever say that. I never knew how good my digital rig was until I put this amp into my system. And I have to give some props to the E-MU 0404 DAC. This cheap DAC sounds incredible. When you factor in that you can buy one for around $200, it’s crazy good.
When I think about the fact that I can probably buy two PL 400 Series 2 amps on the used market for less than the cost of a new set of tubes for my Jadis Defy 7 MKII, it kind of puts things into perspective. I guess there is some irony that I’m driving the PL with a tube preamp that I have over $5k invested in.
When I ask myself why everything suddenly sounds the best it ever has, there is only one answer. So now I’m happy that my Jadis blew an output tube. Otherwise, the PL would still be sitting on a shelf in my workshop room and I wouldn’t know how good my system could really sound. And trust me, if all you heard was my Jadis, you would most probably think the system sounded very good.