Favorite amp for VOT?

[Nipper]

Just curious...

What is your favorite amp for use with VOT's?

[analog addict]

Right now I'm digging a simple restored Maggie 9302 PP 6BQ5. I just changed out preamps too, so the 45 SET amp will get another shot....:2thumbsup:

[MikeInNH]

I never owned a pair of VOT's..but I have a friend who has a pair...and I've listened to them many many times...When he first bought them some 30+ years ago he was running them with a Crown DC-300A. They were awesome...

Then when home theater came along he used them as the mains for his new home theater system...The crowns were getting old and he didn't like the NEW Crown amps...So he built a Single-Ended Triode using WE 300b tubes... I think it was a kit from Carey....The sound is unbelievable...The problem he had was finding a good sounding center channel that had decent efficiency (95db or higher) so they could be driven with the WE 300b tube amp also. So he built that too...

[Ronald Lee]

MikeInNH: I was going to say the same thing, Crown DC300. Sounded really great.

[scott fitlin]

I run a commercial sound reinforcement system, and MY ALTEC basshorns, ranging from 815A, 816,s and 817A,s, loaded with ALTEC 421-8LF woofers, the CROWN DC-300A wins hands down! On ALTEC horns, like 311-90,s I use a Crown D-150A, and I love Crown.

If ever I get my hands on some ALTEC multi cells, I will use Crowns, this has always worked and been of the UTMOST reliability.

Crown and ALTEC works, for me!

[Steve Mac]

I know Crown is reliable and has got a punch, but for hi-fi installs...for the midrange horns, it would not be my first choice. I grew up listening to tube amps on 511-802Ds, and I believe a well designed tube amp would be hard to beat. I chose the Stratos amps from Odyssey Audio. Call us (317) 299 5578. IN, USA. and it was very easy to hear the sonic improvement over the Crown D-75A I had on the 511e/288h combo. But that's not really a fair comparison, they are in a different league altogether. I wanted to make sure I had class A for the first 35-40 watts which is what the stratos does....and there's a huge power supply and another 110 watts in reserve for peak signals. Having said this, I would love to hear a high grade tube amp...maybe 20 watts on the 511E/288H combo I'm running. Favorite amp is kind of a trick question because with different price points you get different favorites. For less than 500 bucks...a good vintage Crown is not a bad choice. And on subs...where you need more punch than finesse Crown is also a good choice. But there's lots of good amps out there...that I don't own.

P.S. I can't believe the link I wrote into this message was expanded with the "call us" info...weird!

[LICORNE]

Favorite is Mcintosh. So expensive. Try to lift one .Go on their site and click bottom left Less Paul testimony on Mcintosh and Altec speakers.

[MERDY]

i did not have the vot but magnificents,604, and a varity of altec systems that are active
on the magnificent i tried over 30 amps over the years
the crowns and macs were great i enjoyed the boogie factor of the mac 2105
the vintage tube amps like marantz etc were sweet but the best ones i liked were the big triode amps that used 201,572,845 tubes etc(expensive) very musical the 300b were a bit weak on the frequency extremes
i still use the 300b from 300/500 hz to 12khz where they are stunning

[voice of the theater]

Favorite is Mcintosh. So expensive. Try to lift one .Go on their site and click bottom left Less Paul testimony on Mcintosh and Altec speakers.

Wow! Great video interview--Les Paul loved McIntosh amps and the Altec 604's--really interesting guy (inventor of the electric guitar)..... Here's the link McIntosh | Home
I had to scroll down and click on the photo of Les Paul that "pops up" at the bottom right of the page......

[drummerwill]

I've got 3 sets of Altec speaker systems, A set of Valencias, a pair of GPA 604-8III's in MLTLs and a pair of A-5's ( 828 cab/803B Horns). For my Altec's I use only Triode Tube powered amplifiers, these are all of different amp designs.

I use 45 single ended amp, a 2A3 Direct Coupled single ended amp, 845 single ended amp, 300B singled ended and 2 different Push-Pull 45 triode amps. The reason I use all triode power amps is for the crystal clear reproduction I can acheive using the most linear ampliifaction device to my knowledge.

We all know about the quality of Altec speakers and thier efficency !! So guess what for home listening you don't need 300 watts to get good sound out of them.

So when I want more bang out of my Altecs for complicated musical works I run my Push-Pull 45 amps. They have a higher damping factor than the 45 single ended amp. Or I use the 845 sinlge ended amp.

For Jazz and small orchestral groups I use the 45 single ended amp or most lately the 23 DC amp. Of late I've done mods to the 2A3 Direct coupled amps and its performance has surpassed all the other amp in control of all my Altec systems.

This is all JMHO. But when all is said and done, Altec are soo good you can use 1 watt or a Thousand watts you can get great sound out of either.

Have Fun!
Willie


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