Select My Amp

The following are some general guidelines to help in selecting an amplifier for your speakers. As with all things, these are general “rules”, but there are exceptions depending on your desired listening levels, distance from your speakers, as well as your room size. If you’d like some more assistance in selecting the optimal amplifier for “your” needs, please feel free to use the contact us feature or give me a call. (Note: It will be helpful for me to know as much information as you can provide, such as speaker brand and model, musical styles, and the average and maximum decibel levels you listen at).

Please also note that I can customize my products to allow them to best fit your speakers and requirements.

None of my amplifiers require any manual biasing, or other adjustments and they all run the tubes no higher than 75 % dissipation to ensure excellent reliability and tube life.

SINGLE-ENDED AMPLIFIERS:

For speakers with 93 db+ sensitivity (4 to 12 ohms)

Custom EL84 SE- Smooth, nuanced SET sound from an inexpensive tube. Good tubes are $100 a pair. Detailed and linear, somewhat smooth presentation. Good for low to mid-level listening, it excels with jazz, female vocals, classic rock, and some heavier more dynamic music. 1.5 watts per channel.

Super 2A3 SET- Linear, transparent, natural sound. Good tubes are $300+ a pair. Very true to the recording, no achilles heel in presentation. Surprising dynamics and bass for 3.5 watts per channel. Excels with jazz, female vocals, classic rock, some heavier more dynamic music.

Super 300B SET- Nicely extended on the top and bottom, robust in the midrange, slightly bigger bass than the 2A2. Good tubes are $500+ a pairVery detailed, but forgiving of less than stellar recordings. Good for low, mid and some higher level listening. Excels with the same as above but can give an extra kick to some heavier, more dynamic music. 9 watts per channel.

For speakers with 90 db+ sensitivity (4 to 12 ohms)

Super KT 88/120 SE- Nicely extended top and bottom, linear midrange (not quite as transparent as the 2A3 or 300B). Much more definition in the bass, good tubes start at $100 a pair for EL34s. No shortcomings in louder, more complex or heavier music. More cost effective design for higher power single-ended sonics, more flexibility in tube types and settings to change the sound. Between 7-20 watts per channel.

Custom 300B PSET- The same sonics as the Super 300B SET (uses the same circuit but with higher current power supply). Very transparent with that robust midrange and twice the power as your typical 300B SET. Can also use single 300B per channel with 8 ohm speakers (in PSET mode can drive as low as 4 ohms). Produces 18 watts per channel using (4) 300Bs.

PUSH-PULL AMPLIFIERS:

For speakers with 87 db + sensitivity (4-12 ohms)

Transcend Push-Pull- Nicely extended top and bottom. Very transparent and linear. Not dry or solid state sounding like many push pull amplifiers due to not pushing the tubes too hard. Not as much inner detail or 3D as single-ended, but close. Quad of good sounding EL34s start around $175 a set. No shortcomings in louder, more complex or heavier music. Flexibility in tube types and settings to change the sound. Between 20-65 watts per channel.

For speakers with 83 db + sensitivity (2-12 ohms)

Parallel KT Push-Pull- Essentially a pair of Transcend Push Pull amplifiers “bridged” for double the power. All of the sonic attributes mentioned above but with much more power, and ability to drive 2 ohm speakers. No shortcomings in louder, more complex or heavier music. Flexibility in tube types and settings to change the sound. Between 40-130 watts per channel.