Wot he said.

Hmmm, well Gary, considering your enthusiasm here, I'm not sure you will be satisfied with the 300B amps you have commissioned from Nick. Educate me.....are they the same monoblocks that Toppsy uses being 300B SE design? If they are, I suspect you might be disappointed. I never liked these amps anyway, finding sound presentation a bit soft and uninvolving. My tweaked WAD 300B PP is well superior in overall sound presentation (IMHO) albeit it shows a PP sound which is very different to to an SE sound. As you clearly enjoy the performance of the Amptastic amps, I really am unsure if the Longdog amps will be to your taste.

Absolutely not wanting to piss on your parade but your liking for the Mini 1 is rather suggesting what you like sound wise. This very thing being what I hope will also work for me, so actually I can get rid of my expensive to maintain 300B power amp.

Lets see. Apparently my Amptastic order will be shipped at the end of this week or at the beginning of next. Looking forward....

Having re-read this post, Gary, I'm feeling a little guilty that it might have upset you which I would not want to do. Please PM me your home phone/mobile so I can talk this through with you.

Greg

Hi Greg,
no harm done fella, appreciate where your coming from.

We should always speak our minds and it's a fair point you make about the difference in "type" of sound between the technologies.
However... having said how much I'm enjoying what I'm hearing let me lay out a couple of proviso's to consider...

The Mini1/psu/Capella as pre setup I'm using does sound great and it's driving my Eddingdales very well, better than my previous KT88 push pull valve amp did.
What this shows (to me) isn't that the amp combo I'm using atm is the absolute best amp solution for driving my speakers...but that the speakers can benefit from stepping up to better amplification.
If they can sound great with £400 quids worth of kit, I'm taking the view that there's more to come...not unreasonable to assume Im not hitting the limits of what the speakers are capable of.
I've heard the speakers with different amps, including 300B, and to my ears it's a sound theory.
and...its a different design Nicks working on.

I know what you mean about the "speed" of the T-Amps and I enjoy that like yourself, but I've heard that with valve setups too, both PP and SET!
...all depends on system Synergy imo.

For my own system setup, I'm going with separate 300B single ended power amp(not monos) and a seperate Pre.
The choice of preamp (and what type I use) I'll figure out later, but the choice of valve single ended power amp was a no brainer for me Greg.
Because:
:The speakers were conceived to be driven this way.
:Amp design and quality will be world class.
:I love valves!

Also,
Using valves rather than Class D or solid state to drive the speakers makes more sense to me.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but here goes...

As the speakers impedance won't be constant through its entire range, (and I think impedance is higher at bass frequencies?) an amp that can increase its power (current) output to match higher impedance is better. As far as I know only valves can increase current output in this way to match rises in impedance.
Solid state and Class D drives voltage, so when impedance rises power output can be affected, which theoretically can lead to a reduction potentially in dynamics, slam and scale.
The Eddingdales are very dynamic speakers and their drive, slam and scale are all sides to their sound I want to make the best of.
My thinking is to get the foundation as good as possible, subjective aspects like speed, sparkle etc can be tweaked with choice of preamp.
The Eddingdales were in fact conceived to be driven by single ended valve amps, so there is that too.

To me it's ALL about system synergy, whether it's budget kit or more high end.
Make the best of the kit you have and sometimes you get a nice surprise when combinations become more than the sum of their parts.

That's what's happened with the Mini-1/linear psu/Capella pre combination.
But is it the absolute best amp with the best synergy I could get with my speakers? I'd say probably not.
everythings relative

After all that I'm off to listen to some choons...as I said, T-Amps Rock!

Greg,
know you too well mate...and besides, still owe you for the brownies.

Listening to the System just now, sounding great. Doubt you will be disappointed.
Different flavour maybe, but its fun to try these things.

How did the Eddie's work with your push pull?
Think it was that one you brought down to Owsten a couple of years ago?

I still remember the chills up my neck when you played "Spanish Harlem"...whoa.
This was (in fact) the reason I went for the Eddingdales - yup, hearing that song!

Be good to let us all know what you think when you get the TAmps in and set up.

I'll be intrigued to hear your conclusions Greg. You never can tell what works with what....I realise what I'm about to retell is more extreme as my 300B amps are SE not PP.

I was swapping between my Bastanis OBs (100db sensitivity) and Alpair 12P OBs (92db), both with active dsp'ed bass. Although 100db vs 92db sensitivity seems like a big difference, in actuality they seem little different so maybe the specs are a little out. The Bastanis sound great with any of my amps, 300B SE and T amp included. The Alpairs sound great with the T amps but rubbish with the 300B SE. I've looked at the specs of the Alpairs, impedance rises a bit but it's not bad, there's no crossover, really they should work well with 300B SE but they don't, no dynamics.

I think when I played Spanish Harlem, I was demonstrating my 2A3PSE which is interesting considering your choice of new amp Nick Gorham is building for you

The Edingdale's sounded great with my 300B PP. Nigel currently uses a pair with his WD KT88 PP amp and is very satisfied. I listen to his system regularly and it does sound good. Nick (nb here and Pepperoni on AT) also had a pair for a while which he used both with his WD KT88 and latterly his Devialet. Also sounded very good. They are a very engaging speaker and seem to work well with a variety of amplification.

Hi Greg , I think it's the CAT speaker cable which Gary is using with the Amptastic / Capella at the moment .

Hi Greg, I'm doing well thanks...I've been through a lot but have come out the othet side. Have fun with the T amps.

Thanks, Gary, that's useful info.

My Mini 1's arrive tomorrow. Sorry if this has been covered before, but can anyone advise how many hours I need to get on them before they can be regarded as burnt in and sounding right?