Driving L3000 w/ a low-power tube speaker amp

I guess the main questions would be:
Is your amp stable into ~48 Ohms?
Is the volume control fine enough and noise floor low enough to handle 104 dB/mW sensitivity?

I have had mixed results with running headphones from a regular amp. I had wonderful results running some Beyers from a 71A tube amp off the 16 ohm tap. Currently I am having no joy running HD650s off of my Tektron which can run both 2A3's and switch to 300Bs also. It does sound great with my K1000s though :-)

I am considering getting an Antique Sound Labs UHC transformer "impedancer" to try. It turns out that you can still order them and they even have a higher end model.

What is a ZDT?

Best,

Paul

it looks like ZDT doesnt have balanced input but has balanced output..

Thanks for the reply. I contacted him asking about hooking up headphones to regular amps and here is his reply quoted with his permission...

"A good 300B SET amp will drive both cans well. The trick is good output iron, and clean power supply. The K1000 needs 10 volts peak, and an amplifier source below 10 ohms to drive them. This is 12.5 watts peak into 8 ohms. That same amp will drive the 300 ohm HD650's to 333mW, which is basically ear bleed. The K1000's are very inefficient about 86dB for 1 watt. The HD650's are like 107dB with 100mW. So the HD650 will pick up any noise from the amplifier where the K1000 will not. My ZDT is quiet, but will only swing about 8 volts with a standard CD player. That will drive the K1000's, but maybe not as loud as you like to listen. I do have an amp coming out this summer, which is a tube front end class A transistor buffer amp that will do 12 watts, and sound good on the K1000, headphones of any type, as well as speakers. Another option is to use the Zana Deux for your headphone listening, and then use the Zana Deux pre outs to drive a nice power amp for your K1000, and speaker listening. I am doing a run of ZD's right now if you want one, I also have a Demo amp for slightly less.

You can make the Techtron work, but it will need a power supply upgrade, maybe even out boarding the supply depending on how much hum pickup there is in the output transformers. You don't need higher taps if the amplifier already does about 8 watts which is typical for 300B amps. You may need to upgrade the output transformers, get a quote from Electra-Print for their ST3K, it has 16 ohm, 8, 4, 2 ohm ability."

Note the news about a new amp and a ZD demo available :-)

I was very impressed with my email exchanges with Craig. He really takes the high road as a vendor and it certainly makes one want to support him. I specifically asked him if I could use the quote because I figured that he would not be promoting himself here and could use the boost. I also thought that others would like to hear about his new offering ...and that he has a demo ZD available.

Although I do really like the sound of my Tektron with the K1000's I am starting to regret buying it. The issues are mostly related to trying to work with the vendor who is in Sicily. I asked about having a couple of mods done and found out that although the mods were very reasonable it would cost at least $300 each way to ship the amp to Sicily! This definitely tips the balance in favor of American vendors (for those of us in the US) especially for heavy SET amps...

When I get time I hope to write up my experience with this amp. Mixed so far...

Best,

Paul