[Bret L]

On May 13, 11:17*am, Boon wrote:
On May 13, 5:12*am, Bret L wrote:



Now Nelson Pass' First Watt "kitchen table" amps are truly interesting
designs that sound great...and he charges fair prices for them. I
reviewed the F3, and it offered all of the sonic benefits of a great
SET amp without the hassles and idiosyncracies. I wouldn't mind owning
one in the near future.

*I think Nelson Pass is a decent guy (and yes, I know...again
irrelevant) but I am not a huge fan of these minimal designs. I think
his work with Threshold was a lot better.

Have you HEARD any of the First Watt designs?

The first of them when he came out with the basic concept, yes. I
mean, there was nothing WRONG with it, it worked OK, but it just
sounded like any other decent low powered amp. The Tresholds gave you
enough power for normal speakers though.

Single ended triode amps, if you follow a proven design like the WE
91, are not bad for maintainability at all. That isn't why I basically
don't like them: it's because they have low power and high distortion.
Yes, it's POSSIBLE to build a SET with enough power (if you use a
transmitting tube) and low distortion (you need a big artfully wound
OPT and a reasonable amount of feedback), but why bother?