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Thought on OTL tube amps

Just curious....how do these sound/perform compared to tube amps with transformers? Why do you prefer one or the other? Any particular brands of OTL amps you would recommend listening to? You can see my system on my tag here...listen mostly to rock and roll with a smattering of jazz and a bit of classical once in a while. The next stop on my amplifier adventure is an OTL model, and I have no intention of trading it for either SET I currently have, as I'm very happy with both. One of the ways I enjoy experimenting with different "sound" is by switching up the amps. Just trying to solicit some opinions, of which I know there are many strong ones here at A-Gon. Thanks in advance!
afc
cal3713's avatar
cal3713
388 posts
 
Thanks for posting Al.  I should just start reading every post of yours so that I continue learning the science behind the music.
larryi
1,972 posts
 
If the Berning folks might be stretching it a bit to call their amp an OTL, what about companies, like Tenor (I believe), that put out a solid state amp that they described as OTL?  This was absolutely true, but, aside from a few solid state amps like models produced by McIntosh, all solid state amps are OTLs (low output impedance of transistors makes transformers unnecessary).

By the way, all of my amps are FCL (flux-capacitor-less).
almarg's avatar
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almarg
8,673 posts
 
By the way, all of my amps are FCL (flux-capacitor-less).
I suspect that they'll perform best with contemporary music  :-)

Chris (Cal3713), thanks for the nice comment.

Best regards,
-- Al
 


atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
7,068 posts
 
If the Berning folks might be stretching it a bit to call their amp an OTL, what about companies, like Tenor (I believe), that put out a solid state amp that they described as OTL?  This was absolutely true, but, aside from a few solid state amps like models produced by McIntosh, all solid state amps are OTLs (low output impedance of transistors makes transformers unnecessary).

I remember when Allied used to write up the receivers in their catalog back in the early 70s. They referred to their circuits as ITL/OTL and maybe with good reason at the time. A lot of solid state amps back in those days employed input transformers as phase splitters to the output section!

These days though OTL generally refers to a tube amp, not a solid state amp as its no big shakes with solid state in that regard.
xonex77
42 posts
 
Using the Zero in OTL, kill dynamics and will not be OTL anymore.Going back to  PP.
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