Push-pull pentode/tetrode amps didn’t go extinct, but they became questionable, in some circles at least, and the reputational damage seemed to hit especially the ones carrying Mullard’s fantastic invention from 1955: the power pentode E元4 (the parent company Philips introduced it already in 1949). It didn’t help that some of the pentode/tetrode PP amps, like my VTL 60 Anniv., were triode strapped, or had a switch for running the amp both in a pentode and triode mode. in introduction of the Sound Practices magazine in 1992, and the European Triode Festival a couple of years later. But was that the chicken or the egg? The SET community, bringing together the best brains from France, Japan and the USA, had become more powerful and influential towards the end of the 80s, resulting eg. This was no doubt partly because markets saw a growing inflow of higher sensitivity loudspeakers. Fairly soon the interest diverted away from such (push-pull pentode/tetrode) amps toward smaller power single-ended devices, preferably with directly heated triodes (45, 2A3, 300B, 211, 845 etc.). I thought it was a fine amp but apparently not. Ei’s business collapsed in the former Yugoslavia and so on) to acquire good quality KT90s (or any other tubes for that matter), but apart from that, the VTL was a valid Class A 60 watter, and not too different from what was available at the emerging tube amp markets: pentodes / tetrodes in push-pull pairs at the output and most often operating in Class AB. Now, it wasn’t exactly the greatest time in history (eg. When I refreshed the teenage hobby in the 90s, one of my very first amps was VTL 10th Anniversary Triode 60 Stereo Integrated Amplifier a special gold plated KT90 Class A push-pull device featuring larger octal tubes (6SL7 and 6SN7) for input and the driver, Mercury Magnetics VTO-100 output transformers, and passive volume controls, one per channel (the front panel pair of RCAs went directly into the input tube grids enabling the amp to be used as a stereo power amplifier).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |