Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
After a life-long "career" as audiophile and music lover, I ran across this amp on a sale at a local audio outlet. The price was so good that I thought that I may as well take the chance and buy it - perhaps it will show me what the heck all this "Single-Ended Triode nonsense" is all about.

Suffice to say that it blew me away - the differences are subtle, but I have never heard any of my Jazz or classical concerto music sound so sweet and GOOD!

Having said that, SET amps are are not for everybody. If you listen to Rock / Progressive Rock / Heavy Metal etc., FORGET IT - these amps will frustrate you. The power is just not there. Its forte is solidly in the Jazz combo / Classical small ensemble area. In this area it excels and will blow almost everything else away.

Something else I should mention is that you can change the character of the sound by replacing the output tubes with good quality KT-66 or 6L6GC tubes (I have run Gold Lions for extended periods of time without any sign that the power supply is stressed - I suspect that the filament supply windings was designed for the MP-15 version which uses KT-88 tubes). Similarly, I changed the input tubes to NOS JAN Philips 5670/2C51 and prefer that to the stock Chinese tubes.

If you're looking for an amp that can give you more than just a taste of what the world of horrendously expensive 300B / 2A3 - based SET ams sound like, this amp is just the thing.

-- JunkyJan
BC, Canada