AudioCircle
Industry Circles => Daedalus Audio => Topic started by: audiotom on 27 Jun 2016, 09:33 pm
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I have a pair of Ulysses and drive them with Doshi Jhor mono blocks (90 watts) with 1970s Golden Lion 6550 tubes.
I swapped this out briefly for a "franken monster" prototype SET amp that couldn't quite keep up with the dynamics etc
A fellow audio club member in NOLA is using a very efficient Engstrom horn speaker (over 105 db) with an SET amp.
I never really liked horn speakers. Curious about the SET sound with the Ulysses or any model in the Daedalus line.
Is anyone using SET amps with their speakers and what has been your experience?
thanks
Tom
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I use DeHavilland Aries 845 monos, they put out 30wpc of glorious SET power and are all I need for my space and listening habits. I also had a pair of 300B monos, they sounded great lower levels, but I like the meatier sound of of the 845 tubes.
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845 is also my personal preferred tube.
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Didnt Lou do some work on the Modwright SET that will be on the market sometime in the near future?
I bet he played with it while in his shop :thumb:
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I use a Line Magnetic 518 IA integrated 22wpc 845 Set with my Argos V2s, easily drive them without going beyond 10 o'clock - left in the stock 845s, all other tubes are NOS.
There is another thread on the Daedalus Circle about what amps folks use with their Deadalus speakers which you might want to look at as well.
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Also, might want to send Dan Wright (Modwright) a note he personally has Ulysses so you can ask directly about what SETs he's tried including Modwrights. My experience with Dan is that he is approachable and honest.
Drive my Argos V2s with Modwright gear as well as teh Line Magnetic
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We have used many SET over the years and they work great. The impedance load is so stable and easy to drive that the big six driver systems are a dream with SET amps (3db more efficient than our smaller systems)
last year we showed with the first prototype SET 8watt and it was fine. in a normal room it does very well. the 30 watt SETs completely rock out even in a big room!
Again the key is the finesse of the crossover, just because a speaker has moderately high efficiency does NOT mean it will work well with SET amps especially low power ones.
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Are your crossovers unique to lower reactance problems? I'm not a tube guy yet, but typically figured the transformer took care of the issue largely, but I suppose that wouldn't always be true (and or some SET don't have the current).
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For a couple years, I used a Shindo Cortese 10-watt SET amp with my Athenas, in combination with a Shindo Monbrison preamp. I also heard this combo easily drive a Ulysses. The Shindo put out 10 very powerful watts and I never exceeded 10 or 11 on my volume dial. The sound was absolutely room-filling in my medium sized listening room (21 x 13) with openings to other rooms.
The Shindo sonics were very immediate (as you would expect) and incredibly chunky and saturated with tone color. Eventually, I tried some solid state designs I liked and am now very happy with a Crayon CFA 1.2 integrated. Not quite the tone density of the Shindo gear, but significantly more transparent, with less coloration, and better bass.
I've had a half dozen or so amps come through the listening room with Lou's Athenas, and sonic differences were very easy to hear -- Lou's speakers are very transparent to what precedes them.