As an owner of a pair of Sequel IIs, I cannot buy the fact that a 28 wpc amp will drive them worth a damn.
Your assertion strains credulity. I also plainly understand the differences between tube amp output transformers and transistors, yet my doubt remains....
My 2 cents.
~VDR
Points well taken.
But there are variables that straight deductive reasoning can't allow for, and I should've written them into this thread:
1. The size of the room. It's only 12x13'. The size of the room a system is playing in has a huge impact. Deductive reasoning would suggest that if I doubled the room size, the system should only play half as loud, every other parameter being equal, but that's not the case. It's actually about 1/3 at that point. Eventually I'll be moving my system into my living room, and for that I'm slowly building a pair of 280w monoblocs. Coincidence? Nope! That much more power will be required for that size space.
2. Sequels are fairly sensitive; therefore particularly in a small room, not much power will be required to drive them to good volume. And I only implied that I was suprised how well the amp
DID drive my Sequels, given how much power it has, with no implication that I was rattling my neighbor's coffee cups! However, I could hear the music pretty well throughout the house as I've described before.
3. The amp itself; in and of itself, I've built in lots of reserve current capability in the power supply. It'll play for almost one minute at low volume after I switch it off. More importantly, tube amps, partly because of their output coupling transformers and partly the high plate impedance of the output devices themselves, will "feed" a very rapid drop in the load impedance without much protest; some extra even-order distortion will occur until the amp clips. IMO tube amps do a better job, in most instances, than most solid-state designs, driving difficult loads like electrostats, which are pretty much a voltage-demanding device. Solid-state amps are great at delivering current, but 'stats don't need much. 'Stats present a capacitive load to an amp, and that can be hard on solid-state devices. However solid-state designs in recent ( +/- 20 ) years, at least high-end ones, have become very, very good at what they do and aren't so sensitive to such issues anymore.
3. The amp's phase response. It's got a triode front-end and very little overall feedback, so the stereo image is much more out in the room and three-dimensional compared to a design with lots of feedback, and in my Citation II's instance, a pentode front-end. The imaging on that amp is much flatter and closer to the wall. And it has solid-state amounts of feedback. That all has an effect on phase response and how the amp behaves in its environment.
So! I hope this helps! I'm not trying to imply that I'm somehow cheating the laws of physics or anything, and I'm not trying to exaggerate the amp's capabilities, even if I am pleased with how well it does! If I tried to play it in my living room, no it wouldn't drive my Sequels very well at all!
All that said, I invite any member within driving distance of where I live to come and have a listening session. I have no problem backing up what I say. BYOB and music!:rocker:
P.S. - I've got a 12 WPC amp I restored. From an old Sears console. I'm going to see how well it plays tonight!
