[bunky]

I have a 9/10 condition GTA SE40 coming to me via Fedex from Echo Audio in Portland Oregon. this is a stock unit and Curt Doslu the owner of Echo Audio says his tech had it on the bench and said that it specs perfectly. i am considering mods from Sonicraft or Loc Vu at the Yahoo Golden Tube Audio Group to improve both reliability and performance of my SE40.Is anyone here familiar with these amplifiers and/or mods to them ? thanks....WCW III 

[Mr Ed]

I have two of them used as mono since new in 1997 (I think) I sold my Martin Logans, last year, and now use one driving Ron Clark's Austin BLH.
I have not had any issues or repairs, but am considering the Sonicraft mods. I spent some time talking to them about it and I think it;s the best route. I have heard that it takes them to another level for sure.
Ed

[bunky]

Hey Ed,I just looked at the Sonicraft website and the just released REL+ mod replaces the stock Wima coupling caps with Mundorf Silver in oils so it should make a clearly audible improvement to these already fine sounding amps. after listening to the stock SE40 i can understand why these amps have a reputation for sounding excellent. unfortunately they also have a reputation for reliability issues but this kit also replaces the stock bias resistors that can become a problem in this otherwise nice tube amplifier.thanks....WCW III

[smbrown]

Interestingly I bought a GTA SE40 from Echo about 10 years ago (maybe 11). Loved the cosmetics. Unfortunaetly, sound, to my ears, wasn't any better than an updated Dynaco ST-70. I took the SE40 back after a couple days of auditioning it. I think there is something about paralleled output tubes that tends to smear the soundstage and makes the design over complicated. If you have 3 in parallel, just compounds that. BUT, in all things audio, YMMV!! Audio Note, for example, parallels tubes all the time.

[Niteshade]

Paralleling tubes should have the opposite effect on amplifier performance. It sounds like the amps you listened to had power supply issues or perhaps the output transformer's primary wasn't properly matched up (or both!). Paralleling tubes does not add too many extra components. There is no reason why it should. Precautions have to be taken regarding parasitics & oscillation, but that's not a big deal. Paralleling tubes offers more "grunt" , more stamina and higher stability under low impedance loads. It promotes better speaker control and less micro-nuance attenuation.

Interestingly I bought a GTA SE40 from Echo about 10 years ago (maybe 11). Loved the cosmetics. Unfortunaetly, sound, to my ears, wasn't any better than an updated Dynaco ST-70. I took the SE40 back after a couple days of auditioning it. I think there is something about paralleled output tubes that tends to smear the soundstage and makes the design over complicated. If you have 3 in parallel, just compounds that. BUT, in all things audio, YMMV!! Audio Note, for example, parallels tubes all the time.

[Danny Richie]

Jeff (Sonic Craft) has brought over a modified SE40 a couple of different times to listen to it in my system and try various tubes. What I heard was very impressive and a pretty good jump in performance over the stock amp. It was also made stable and reliable. I don't have any idea what the mods cost, but if the price is right for you the performance is there.

[Mr Ed]

Interestingly I bought a GTA SE40 from Echo about 10 years ago (maybe 11). Loved the cosmetics. Unfortunately, sound, to my ears, wasn't any better than an updated Dynaco ST-70. I took the SE40 back after a couple days of auditioning it. I think there is something about paralleled output tubes that tends to smear the soundstage and makes the design over complicated. If you have 3 in parallel, just compounds that. BUT, in all things audio, YMMV!! Audio Note, for example, parallels tubes all the time.

I would say you had some sort of system miss match there.
I have some vintage Saba drivers that sound better with my little home built 2.5 watt se amp, yet my Austins with Fostex  168esigma sound better with se40.
In fact I am going to do the Sonicraft mods in the very near future, see what the next level is.
Cheers
Ed

[bunky]

A highly regarded gentleman named Loc Vu over @ the yahoo Golden Tube Audio Group offers a mod kit that he designed for the SE40 using PIO capacitors in the coupling positions that is supposed to be extremely good. after much consideration i just sent him a PM inquiring about purchasing his Kit....WCW III

[smbrown]

Okay, I'm curious, if paralleling tubes doesn't add complexity, what do the mod kits do? Someone mentioned stability? In my case maybe it was a system mismatch, just reporting what I heard. I didn't say it was bad, by the way, I've got all kinds of respect for the Dynaco St70, and I didn't mean to say that the soundstage was smeared, but that it isn't as precise as other amps I've tried (like no NFB SETs and no-feedback PP amps). As I noted, YMMV.

[bunky]

In the case of the SE40 the mod kits adress reliability issues and replace the stock Wima coupling capacitors with something better to improve the sonics. because the stock resistors in several places in the circuit are run at or above acceptable levels they are known to be prone to failure. my SE 40 performs perfectly but i am not comfortable with running sketchy resistors that could fail and take something else out with it.thanks....WCW III

[bunky]

I just recieved a modded SE40 from Loc Vu on friday and it sounds really nice  i am going to ship the SE40 that i bought from Echo Audio to Loc Vu for identicle mods so that i can run them as a pair of 80 wpc class A monoblocks.thanks....WCW III