Favorite amp for VOT?

[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


T

[MikeInNH]

Unfortunately Crown isn't what it was when Clyde Moore ran things. Now owned by the Harmon Group. Their amps are no where near what they use to be. I still have a PL-4...GREAT amp...But gathering dust since It doesn't fit in my Home Theater setup.

[gvasale]

FWIW, I use a pair of 80wpc Marantz 16s, with a passive biamp, the desigh of which was in Audio Magazine in the late '60s. I do also have a pair of Crown D150s which are used on another setup, and even an Altec 9440, in poor cosmetic contition I have yet to experiment with. The biamp 'd speakers are dual 416a, and 511b with 808(?) and they seem to work fine for me

[scott fitlin]

Unfortunately Crown isn't what it was when Clyde Moore ran things. Now owned by the Harmon Group. Their amps are no where near what they use to be. I still have a PL-4...GREAT amp...But gathering dust since It doesn't fit in my Home Theater setup.

Hey Mike, the Power Line Series was one of MY favorite series of Crown, ever! The PL-4 I have one, we used that on midrange horns, GREAT amp. I use to use the Power Line Two amps for tweeters, SWEET SWEET top end.

Todays Crown is definitely not what Crown was years ago, and OTOH, for subwoofer duty, The Crown Macro Tech i Series DOES work very well for me. In my experience, playing all digital downloads now, and many of the digital recordings have an over ripe bottom end, I couldn't get TODAYS music to perform quite right for me with traditional amplifiers in the sub bass ranges! The ORIGINAL Macro Techs are no slouches either, but, when I upgraded to Crowns I Techs and later the Macro Tech i, the subs tightened up immensely, have speed and agility, and articulation. The programmability of these amps works out really well for me, allows me to dial the amp in precisely to the loads. From my 15,s on up I use traditional amps, but these new lightweight switching amps do work well on subwoofers. And, I will add that WHAT you feed the new style Crowns with has much impact on sonic output from these very powerful amps. Preamp, EQ, and crossovers have incredible ability to get great sound out of them. Not only that, but I have been experimenting with some new Crowns on 15,s, and I used to think like what your saying but when I tried a couple of the latest Crown offerings I was completely taken by the sound of my 15,s with them. Bass notes and low mids became really well defined, and remain smooth sounding, with all the punch and dynamics you could ask for. The low end from my 15,s is not as fat sounding like when I use old Crown PSA-2,s on my 15,s, but to my ears playing modern digital music which has tons of low end through Crowns new amps, articulation, speed, tightness, and great definition is what I got. The new amps actually make todays music in the low end, sound the way music use to sound! The clarity and detail in my low end improved dramatically. So now I am researching which model of Crown to purchase three of, to drive my 15in range.

The new technologies have been getting very good these days. And some of the older tried and true technology still holds it's own to this day.

[BoydB]

There is a great divergence of opinion on this query of which amps are best for VOTT's... so I'll jump in.

I've used various configurations of VOTT's for over 30 years now and have tried several solid state and tube amps over this period. In the early days I tried several of the big SS monsters... Harmon Kardon Citation 16, Marantz 500, Crown DC300, BGW750B, etc. Later in my experiences I began trying tube amps, and they won me over for their musicality and beauty of sound. I'd come to the conclusion then that my worst tube amp was preferable to the best of the SS.

A few years ago, a buddy asked me to review his new great wonder, an AKSA 100, which was a pricey SS amp from Australia I believe. I had a bi-amped setup with Altec 815a woofer horns and hooked the AKSA up to them. First impressions were not good, the AKSA was sterile and cold. I left it running all day thinking it needed to warm up... after 8 hours I listened again with no improvement at all. I hooked back up my PP 2A3 amps with 12W per channel, and stone cold they stomped the AKSA. The imaging, warmth, musicality, and bouquet was all there with the tubes.

So let the flames begin!!

Boyd

[scott fitlin]

TUBES are special sounding. No arguments from me on this, to my ears tubes have that human sound.

For my system, tube amps are impractical, size, weight, and heat become issues for a pro system. However I found a solution to this as well. Tube program EQ,s, I bought myself a pair of Summit Audio FEQ-50, and these parametric EQ,s use Western Electrics passive EQ circuitry, and you can put whatever 12AX7A in them as the circuit is self biasing. My personal fav line level 12AX7A are 1964 AMPEREX 12AX7A,s that I have, and I use these EQ,s with this tube in them, and I have the EQ,s in the loop of my preamp/mixer, and this works amazingly well for me.

VOTT horns really come to life with a pair of these superb sounding parametric EQ,s! The naturalness, warmth, and lush sounding midrange and midbass are unbeatable. Highs are sparkly, and sound so real, same for midrange, NO GLARE! But the bass, man, I know they say tubes are rolled off sounding, and make loose sounding bass, but my ears say exactly the opposite. Highs seem extended out to light, bottom sounds real, very full, and natural. Not electronic sounding.

We all find our own unique ways of doing some things, and this is how I do it, as tube amps cost MEGA BUCKS for something really worthwhile, and the size, and heat, as well as the tons of vibration in my place really make tube amps impractical for my use.

And that 1964 Amperex 12AX7A tubes that I got my hands on some years back, is one of the best I have ever heard, even though no where near the most expensive. I tried RCA, GE, and a few others, and the Amperex got it hands down.

[Steve Schell]

Hi guys, great to see some old friends on this thread. I'm not running VOTs, but am intimately familiar with them and I am running a fully horn loaded compression driver system.

My main amp most of the time for years now has been a home brew battery biased transformer coupled 26 - 45 - 45 amp. Smokin' the DHT, SE Koolaid (mixed metaphor?) has brought me endless hours of listening joy, interrupted only by the inability to really rock the house on demos due to the 1.6 watts of clean output.

For about three months now I have been seduced by the most unlikely amp, a 1960 vintage Allen organ two channel 6L6 ultralinear amp. I lucked into both the stereo amp and a pair of mono amps that use the same basic circuit. The rumor is that they use the Acrosound TO-300 output transformer, though no one seems to know for sure. They have recently been gone through by a technician who really knows his stuff. Anyway, all the magic SE DHT stuff seems to be there, the "you are there" believability, spooky dimensionality, natural presentation of fine details, etc. Plus, the available power seems unlimited. So it seems a really well balanced ultralinear push pull amp can get you there after all. Some friends and I recently listened to some Sheffield direct to disc cuts at good volume and I just couldn't wish for anything more.

These Allen organ tube amps are really something; keep an eye out for them.

[BoydB]

Steve Schell wrote..

"For about three months now I have been seduced by the most unlikely amp, a 1960 vintage Allen organ two channel 6L6 ultralinear amp. I lucked into both the stereo amp and a pair of mono amps that use the same basic circuit. The rumor is that they use the Acrosound TO-300 output transformer, though no one seems to know for sure. They have recently been gone through by a technician who really knows his stuff. Anyway, all the magic SE DHT stuff seems to be there, the "you are there" believability, spooky dimensionality, natural presentation of fine details, etc. Plus, the available power seems unlimited. So it seems a really well balanced ultralinear push pull amp can get you there after all. Some friends and I recently listened to some Sheffield direct to disc cuts at good volume and I just couldn't wish for anything more.

These Allen organ tube amps are really something; keep an eye out for them."


Boy Steve, I agree in spades regarding the Allen organ amps with the 6L6's. I have a pair of Allen organ monoblocks which use a quad of 6L6's each for 60 watts. Most of the audio world's talk about the Allen amps centers around the model 75, which I think used a pair of 6550's. Mine are earlier models than the 75, probably from the late 50's. They do not have the Acrosound output transformers, they use "Airdesign" transformers, and this beautifully describes their sound. They are arguably the most musical amps I've ever owned.

Here is a not so good pic of one of my Allen model 60 monoblocks, it is in the lower center of this photo. The output tubes are 6BG6's, in essence identical to the 6L6 with a different pinout and plate caps. My apologies to the members of this board for the wimpy speakers in the background