I am curious,

What are the other three Butler designs you are speaking of?


I can only recall two Butler designs. One was the original Tubedriver
manuractured by Phaze Audio. IMHO, it was
an atrocious piece. Poorly laid out PCB, bad power supply design, poor
heater design ( it used the RTO lead to heat
the vacuum tubes) and it was a nightmare to disassemble/reassemble for
repair. Sounded only *OKAY*, well actually it sounded like pushing music
thru sand. The second is the Tubedriver Blue that you now have. I haven't
heard it but I would tend to believe that they might just sound quite
stunning, considering all the technology he "borrowed" from PPI's Tube
Driver designs.

Precision Power Inc., also made a Tubedriver amplifier. It had not one iota
of the technology that BK butler pedals as
his design. PPI did however use a shape close to the Original. I believe
that PPI licensed the name only from BK Butler. This line of amplifiers had
the outstanding quality and sound that PPI was known for. And, the sound
did have a little bit
of the vacuum tube "coloration" from truly operating the tubes at high
cathode voltage. They do have their quirks though.

I am also of the opinion that his new line of amplifiers, Tube Driver Blue
are very much infused with "borrowed" PPI technology. How do I know this
you ask? Ask Mr Butler why he decided to depart from using Lateral MOSFET's
in his audio output section and went with SANKEN 2SC3284/2SA1303 instead.
These are the same BJT output devices that were used on the PPI Tube Driver
amplifiers. Hmmm...., these are two wildly different output topologies.
Audio Engineers that design MOSFET amplifiers don't care for BJT amplifiers
and vice versa. Why did Mr Butler suddenly switch? I haven't seen inside a
TDB, but I would be willing to bet that the power supply topology is a fully
PWM with a toroid xfmr just like the PPI Tube Driver instead of a loosely
regulated E core xfmr like on the original Phaze Audio Tubedriver. Hell,I
would love to get a look at the audio input/preamplifier stages. I would
bet anything that he "borrowed" this too from the PPI amplifier line. His
original designs use TL072 or TL074 operation amplifiers. Great Opamps in
their day, but quite horrible by todays standards. The PPI amplifier used
Burr-Brown Opamps, considerd to be just about the best around for
"audiophile" applications. I even saw that he brags about "his"innovative
heatsink design of the TDB on his website. Appears suspiciously like the
way PPI did their design.

Are the new Tube Driver amplifiers a great amplifier? Probably, after all
he learned from the best!!

BTW I personally own 2 PPI TD2150's, 2 PPI TD1250's and two PPI TD275's and
I love them dearly, and I would be
hard pressed to part with any of them. They have their quirks, but I am
willing to live with them.

John Andreen

"ReedLom" wrote in message
...
I may sell my Tube Driver Blue TDB475. I purchased it new directly from BK
Butler on 8/4/03. It's in pristine cosmetic condition [having been mounted
in
an enclosed amp rack] and performs perfectly. I have the factory shipping
box,
packing materials and owner's manual. This is the fourth version of the
Tube
Driver amp. I've owned all versions; without a doubt this amp is the best
of
the group. The ONLY reason I'm considering the sale of this amp is to
accumulate sufficient funds to buy a Denon DCT-Z1. I'm asking $750 +
shipping.
MSRP is $1099. I will accept payment via USPS money orders or PayPal if
paid
from buyer's PayPal credit balance or checking account. If you have
questions,
please email me at .