Oxymoron: High powered tube amps that stay cool


or even reasonably cool. is there such a thing?

(i find it vexing that living in a hot climate area, houston, that the high powered SS amps i like all run class A / room heater).

rhyno
128x128rhyno
Hi Ryno, living in Austin I do empathize with your plight! But I fear that the only time pure tube amps are cool is when they are turned off. . . but then so do a lot of SS class A and A/B like my own JRDG 7Ms. If you were not interested in exploring alternative Texas-friendly technologies, like high end switching and some excellent cool running SS like the Theta Citadel monos, you may want to explore some of the excellent hybrids from Lam and ARC. Guido
Hi Buscis2, could you point us to some Chinese green designs that you have found particularly interesting. . . I will look them up at RMAF for sure. Guido
Just burn fossil fuels to make enough energy to fire up your favorite tube amps and turn on the ac pumped through baffled chambers from an outlying building to keep in comfy.
A great example is what Dussun is doing with their "Hyper Class A" variable bias circuitry. It's my understanding that they will be releasing a Pre/Power with Stand alone power supplies with 150 watts class A power.

At present, they are utilizing similar circuitry in their V8 integrated. I haven't heard it but it's my understanding that it's a wonderful sounding amp that is extremely efficient. However, I have yet to determine if "Hyper Class A" is a true class A design due to it's level of efficiency. Ping from AAA audio could provide you much mre info than I I'm sure.

http://www.aaa-audio.com/index-products-dussun.htm

Xindak also offers an extremely efficient Class A amp with their XA-6800 SE integrated amp. You'll be seeing many more designs like these coming from China.

http://www.xindak.com/english/products/showditail.asp?id=251

Funny that a country with the absolute worst air quality is focusing on "Green" amp designs.
I have the Berning Quadrature Z's, 250 watts into 8 ohms, and I can put my hand on the grill right above the power tubes and hold it there as long as I want. Now if by cool you mean room temperature, no way, but compared to other tube amps of similar power, they certainly run cool.