Educate me please

May 10, 2009 at 3:10 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

berzzzz

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I own a woo 6 - a transformer coupled amp. I see the woo 3 are single ended OTL design. Can someone give me a brief explanation of the benefits or drawbacks of each design.

Is one better with low impedance phones, that kind of thing
 
May 10, 2009 at 3:50 PM Post #2 of 4
OTL's generally run a high output impedance, therefore, not a good choice for low impedance cans. Power is severely limited in many cases, too - because the output is directly driven from the tubes. Tubes are not known as heavy current producers - just the opposite. Transformer-coupled is better for low impedance, but the drawbacks are often some coloration or loss in low-end frequency response, unless $$$ is spent on the transformer and it's quality.

I'm biased, but this is one reason tube hybrids can be a good choice for low-impedance cans. You get all the advantages of tubes in the gain stage, but can couple the output with a slamming, discrete SS output stage, easily able to handle the lowest impedance headphones.
 

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