1. Home
  2. amps-preamps
  3. 129850-89982

Budget SET or SEP recommendations?

Not in a rush, but considering playing with an SET or SEP.  Have only heard a few.  Something fairly inexpensive, worth trying, but not immediately upgrade-worthy.  Any thoughts, recommendations, or similar SET/SEP noob experiences?  Integrated, or not, doesn't matter.

These two seem to be reasonably respectable for cheap, at least according to the interwebs:

Dared MP2a3c
Yaqin MS-300c

Thank you.
stfoth
seikosha
205 posts
 
Even though I own a Mini Torii, I'd be a bit cautious about recommending it to someone who hasn't heard it.  It's got a very distinct sound.  At its worst, with some recordings it can sound a bit hollow and dead; at its best it's got a beautiful musical full bodied rich and powerful sound.  It all depends on the recording and production of that recording.  In reading the Decware forums, I'm not sure that I've seen any posters who owned a Mini Torii and another Decware amp say that they preferred the M.T.

I've played it for many people in my system.  Some love it and some don't.  Just wanted to put that out there.
keithr
950 posts
 
Easy - Almarro A205

markwatkiss
476 posts
 
Definitely a +1 for the Dynamo 34SE MKII.With the correct tube complement I don't believe it can be surpassed for performance at the price point.
stfoth OP
435 posts
 
Thanks, Seikosha.  Maybe the Mini Torii might not be the best way to dip my toes in, if I can't find one to listen to.

On the Dynamo--do you run it with a preamp, or do you find the built-in volume sufficient?
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I’m not familiar with a Cary "house sound" although I’ve read around 4,612 reviews of Cary stuff over the years…I admit to having simply "rolled the dice" with this amp after buying some relatively efficient (93db) speakers. I get the "mixed reviews" thing but I found mostly positive stuff about these amps when used with the proper speakers, and simply feel Had is hilarious and certainly seems to know what the hell he’s doing…hype from the person making the amp isn’t always the most unbiased source, but in this case he seems to be on to something with this "Pentode Single Ended" design (his description of just that bit is cool…maybe nonsense to some, but cool). I get that it’s often just good luck to stumble upon something that works well with your existing gear, although if the front end of the system is well sorted stuff generally works well. After 5 decades of gear sorting I was actually surprised by how great this little amp sounds. Maybe I’ll stick a premium fuse in it (kidding…that was for Charles1dad…heh heh).
More to discover