June 24, 200917 yr I got a chance to listen to the Singlepower Platinum Extreme at CanJam. I liked it compared to other tubed amplifiers because it didn't have that tubey warm colored sound. I wanted to pick one up used, but I have been reading that Mikhail is MIA and there may be problems with getting it fixed if I ever needed to. Can someone suggest some comparable amps with a similar sound? Just a FYI, I listened to the WooAudio3, Cary Exciter, and the Cary 300SEI. I thought all three of these amps sounded to warm and tubey for my taste.
June 24, 200917 yr There is no current, commercially available amplifier that uses a similar tube compliment in an OTL topology. Used examples would include the Eddie Current HD300 and Wheatfield HA-2 but I sincerely doubt you'll have much luck finding either and both are really only suitable for high-impedance headphones. At least that's all the comes to mind. The closest thing really is the Woo WA22 which is still a trafo-coupled design and may not be to your liking.
June 24, 200917 yr As an added bonus, build it with all the faults Mikhail did and you have the extra fun of fixing it regularly.
June 25, 200917 yr Just saw pictures of neil's amp. Pretty pissed at the moment. Which leads to the following politically incorrect comment... (with a russian accent) "IT MUST BE BUILT LIKE SHIT TO SOUND GOOD" The amount of total clusterfuck here is awsome.
June 26, 200917 yr Doesn't Berning, Bada, Decware and Antique Sound Labs have amps that would qualify? Here's an interesting one: http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/Chazz-2-Headphone-Amplifier-Assembled_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ260380466884
June 26, 200917 yr Part of what makes gives the Extreme the potential to sound good is running the 6080/6AS7 in parallel on the output, OTL's with a single tube are not going to perform well into low ohm loads in my experience. And of course none of them run the output tubes as hard as I do in the Menace.
June 27, 200916 yr And of course none of them run the output tubes as hard as I do in the Menace. You should try cranking up the bias till the plates glow and see if it sounds better, 6AS7's aren't that expensive. Going back to the OP, one amp that comes to mind is the Trafomatic Head One, but it's a transformer output amp not an OTL like the singlepower. Definitely a nice neutral sound and not the warm mushy sound found in many tube amps.
June 27, 200916 yr I wonder what would happen if you went to jack at woo audio and told him you wanted him to build an extreme his way. It sure would be pretty and it would work forever. Offer to supply the schematic and have him make the necessary changes to make it reliable. He already knows how to do dc filament supplies, and high voltage supplies for that kind of thing, should be easy.
June 27, 200916 yr If mine ever comes back I'll sell it to you. That aside, will picks of Neil's ES-2 ever be made public?
June 28, 200916 yr If mine ever comes back I'll sell it to you. That aside, will picks of Neil's ES-2 ever be made public? That is up to neil. But if you ask him real nice i'm absolutely sure he will send them to you... Major fail with capacitors just hanging there from stickem cable ties that long since let loose... Send the amp to me... But really you will never get it back... Edited June 28, 200916 yr by kevin gilmore
June 28, 200916 yr Yeah, I pretty much wrote it off already. If it comes back, it'll be a nice surprise. /shrug
June 28, 200916 yr I wonder what would happen if you went to jack at woo audio and told him you wanted him to build an extreme his way. It sure would be pretty and it would work forever. Offer to supply the schematic and have him make the necessary changes to make it reliable. He already knows how to do dc filament supplies, and high voltage supplies for that kind of thing, should be easy. Where are the shematic ? BTW, 2 MPX3 to sell on head-fi actually. I think the MPX3 SE is a better amp than a simple extreme.
June 28, 200916 yr complete with all the glorious fuckups... http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/singlehourextreme.jpg
June 28, 200916 yr Don't forget this Woo Audio 2 High End Headphone / Pre Amplifier. A bit different tube compliment. (although the same output tubes)
June 29, 200916 yr I loves me the Woo 2 and think it betters the extreme in it's stock form. Great sound, a pre amp ans Woo build quality to boot
June 29, 200916 yr They are almost too horrific for those noobs on HF... So I guess that means they are worse than Al's power supply?
June 29, 200916 yr Author Me thinks me likey the ASL. Although me never hear one, me try anyway. Anyone know if the MG Head III has self rectum-fying tubes?
June 29, 200916 yr Self-rectifying? Not likely. come on Dusty, you can do better than that.. that typo almost does the work for you!
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