After writing that I was very satisfied with the sounds of my Tiny Twelves driving my 89dB-(in)sensitive Audio Physic Avanti IIIs, I succumbed to my chronic
audiofoolia nervosa and started wondering if something more powerful would sound better.
To sell them, I connected my much-improved, long-dormant Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes running in triode...
...to the Avantis. Perhaps because subconsciously I didn’t want the ‘Canes to sound better because I wanted to sell them and ultimately didn’t want 11-tube monsters heating the house during our 5-month summer, I heard only tonal differences between the ‘Canes* and the EM7-12s, of course while driving only the MR/treble.
This weekend I borrowed my old ASL Explorer 805 50-Watt SET poweramps.
I bought these years ago, improved them substantially, enjoyed them driving Quad 989s, and sold them to a local friend. After level adjustments to counter their 9dB higher gain than the TTs, and also after adding more coupling capacitance to make the TTs full-range again, I did a brief-but-careful comparison of the sounds of the 2 amps. Because I still have some emotional attachment to the ASL 805s, I think I wanted the 805s to sound better so I could feel justified in buying more equipment**. Well, someone may be able to hear lots of differences among the sounds of these 2 amps driving the Avantis, but this tin-eared audiofool couldn’t, so out the 805s came and back to connected the TTs went.
What these exercises demonstrate to me is that Roger’s basic EM7-based SET design is highly sound, and with some selective parts upgrades they sound simply excellent. I’ll not say that I’ll never look for something to replace them, but for now I’m mighty happy.
* The ‘Canes run full-range, while the Tiny Twelves are MR-tweeter amps with an 85Hz high-pass filter in them.
** After all, that is what we audiofools do, right?
