Mike, thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciate it. I dug your pics, especially the subtitles hahaha Those look great. I haven't done much with SET yet on the power amp end, but I loved the Art Audio 845 amps in the Daedelus room. That was pure sex, as were the huge 200w radio transmitter tube SETs. If you don't need to be in that same room with Yammys and Feastrex, send em on! hahaha I guess I could send my speakers over too, and with less risk...
So much hype about this alternative hifi stuff, I just had to bite to see if any of it is true. It is true, but is still very different than our American muscle and refinement through technology approach which of course is superior in everyway except transmitting the glory of God, which is why I listen to music anyway. That's what makes the japs go nuts over this wacky DHT amp and paper driver shit. It is pretty cool, but it exacts its cost in several ways, in money and in departure from perfect distortion specs which American model is based on. I say American as opposed to European which also follows the distortion spec model only because Americans are less willing to sacrifice the lowest octave which requires 4x power and 4x bigger speakers to maintain same low distortion as upper octaves.
BTW, the Zu Defs were used as reinforcement for singer at the show. They sounded really great. Much better than the demo room they were in last year with local dealer.
The Altmann amp is pretty cool. Mine is used and the seller voided warrantee by removing from the wood board (actually cut in half trying to put inside a box
) But the discount was worth it and now I am free to have a close look at what's going on. The amp's PCB is not setup for running as monoblock, but maybe L/R input signals could be rigged for mono input yielding a monoblock, or at least a biamper. I would have to really think about it and get some help to try that. Expensive if I screw up. Power is an issue for me using it with the Legacys. The amp sounded incredible on first day, so I think it is worthy, then developed a distortion while playing some brass quartet stuff which is demanding on current - long mid and low freq sinewaves at medium volume, but the Focus is 2ohms at 75Hz, right in Tuba land. Heatsinking was not good as received. It looked like stock, but I think that maybe the seller did not reassemble the heatsink correctly, which allowed overheating. I improved the heatsinking, but not sure if the chip is already damaged. It is supposed to have a lot of protection modes for heat and shorting. But I can hear a little bit of ick in there after it warms up, even with the 16 ohm Feastrexes which offer tiny load, they are 97dB@16ohms. I will ask Charles what's up, maybe he can solder on a new chip and check it over. But yeah, the sound is really something very special. I would love to have 4 of the them running as monoblocks hanging like ornaments off the high and low speaker posts behind my speakers, with a battery on each side. Add it to the list of to-do's haha. It would cost $4000 list to buy them new. But actually it would probably be worth it compared to similar performance from AC powered 4k retail amps. To get this kind of bass you would need 200w+ ss per side. Unbelievable bass. Once I make sure it is healthy I will send it on a tour.
Snappers sound great on the new speakers too. Lots of power reserve, and ease playing big music.
Rollo, you are absolutely right about the tweaks, and they are coming, even the black hole, bracing, and another trick used in Feastrex' own speaker boxes, mounting the driver from behind on a crossbrace in side the cabinet and isolating driver from front baffle altogether. Still raw wood too, might put a coat of something natural on there which will tone down the mid hype I think. Altmann suggests homemade turp and resin, but that will stink for a long time.
Rich