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Thread: OTL AMPS

  1. #1
    Join Date: Mar 2012

    Location: london

    Posts: 59
    I'm loheswaran.

    Default OTL AMPS

    Dear All

    Anyone here use an OTL amp? I am thinking about:

    Einstein
    Berning
    Atmashere
    OTL's

    BTW they are the only otl designs I know of - if there are others please let me know.

    or else a Tom Evans Linear B

    experience and feedback would be appreciated

  2. #2
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

    Default

    Yes, used and built a couple of the Transcendent Sound kits. Excellent amps if you have suitable speakers.
    “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”

    Hunter S Thompson

  3. #3
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: London

    Posts: 685
    I'm James.

    Default

    Transcendent are the obvious company missing from your list, and well liked by those with experience of them.

    Nice idea but OTLs are chock full of compromises (like all amps), particularly output impedance is usually rather high, so need careful partnering with suitable speakers to give their best.

    Ha! Beaten to it

    Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: The Black Country

    Posts: 6,089
    I'm Alan.

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    Yes designed and built a few OTL's.

    Also remember they are very inefficient, they take a lot of power to produce not much output.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

    Default

    But they sound very good. :-)
    “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”

    Hunter S Thompson

  6. #6
    Join Date: Jan 2013

    Location: Bristol

    Posts: 6,843
    I'm Justin.

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    Atma-sphere M-60.

    This amp sounds plain strange to me. Spent a few hours with a pair on some horns.pl FP15s after hearing them sound odd at Munich on some horns.

    Those particilar examples are highly coloured with odd spacey imaging I think.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: South Wales

    Posts: 9,151
    I'm NotTakingLifeTooSeriouslyTheseDays.

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    Valves are high impedance devices, and therefore not designed to be directly connected to a speaker output, which as others have stated, the output impedance is always going to be reletively high with respect to conventional valve amps with an output transformer, and certainly compared to any solid state amp!
    A...
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  8. #8
    Join Date: Apr 2010

    Location: Bristol, since 1978. Current house since 1996!

    Posts: 909
    I'm Chris.

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    Both Tom Evans and the Berning amp are highly rated, but aren't OTL. I certainly liked the Berning I had on loan once. Both pricy.
    On a different angle, the Pass F series are pretty stripped back in design and sound valve-like (reputedly)
    Chris.

  9. #9
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

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    Quote Originally Posted by anthonyTD View Post
    Valves are high impedance devices, and therefore not designed to be directly connected to a speaker output, which as others have stated, the output impedance is always going to be reletively high with respect to conventional valve amps with an output transformer, and certainly compared to any solid state amp!
    A...
    The TS Son Of Beast as an example has a quoted output impedance of 0.8 ohms.
    “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio”

    Hunter S Thompson

  10. #10
    Join Date: Oct 2016

    Location: London

    Posts: 313
    I'm David.

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    I built some Transcendent Audio Pinnacles for a client. As sold the design is dangerous and does not meet UK electrical safety requirements (or any sensible, safe use) and some of the components were under-rated for a relatively common event-fuse failure on one leg of the output valves. While both issues were relatively easy to solve and correct, I was also under-impressed with the overall look of the amp for its price. All this might be worthwhile but to have 8 300bs producing 6 watts into 8 ohms is pretty extravagant!
    It might be worthwhile if the sound quality was out of this world and you have some super-efficient speakers but while SQ is excellent there was nothing there that is not bettered or equalled with a well-designed SE valve amp.
    David

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