[Canada Rob]

Wolf Ear Audio is the name of this new company, and Andrew Rintoul is the owner/designer/builder, and web dude.  The amplifier is an EL84/6P15P-EV SET.
Check out the website for description and specs.  http://www.wolfearaudio.ca/

As you can see from the picture I now have one and love it.  The pictures don't do the custom built chassis justice - it's beautifully made.  Anodized and powder coated heavy gauge aluminum.  The chassis is well vented and the amp runs quite cool, especially when one sees how much heavy duty North American iron is under the deck.

What I love the most is the sound.  Coupled with a Schiit Modi 2 DAC, Klipsch RPW10 sub, and Super 3i's, the sound is...is...is....
Resolution: clear, transparent, and very detailed.  Fingers on strings, vibrating double bass strings, breathing, tongue movement, space, air, etc.
Speed: As fast as anything I've heard.
Tone: Warm, sweet, and organic.  Typical of a great single driver/SET system.
Soundstage: Deep, wide, layered, highly focused with air around the performers.
Frequency extension:  With a my sub, a clean, "non room gain" 35 - 20,000Hz yet with that magic midrange.

This is a very affordable system that will run with gear costing many times more.
The amp is only $1600 CAD (about $1100 USD). Should be $3500 USD
The speakers in EKO finish are only $595 a pair. Should be $3000 USD
The Sub was a giveaway at $400 USD, and I'm sure there's other budget giant killers out there.  HSU Research is one that comes to mind.
The $99 DAC, well it's a Schiit - compare at $500+.

This system is a fine example of what can be had in the "Audio Underground"  Total price of the main pieces is $2194 USD.  A person could spend $20,000 on a system in the mass market "above ground" and not match this system for sound quality...and in many cases, build quality.



I hope Andrew doesn't mind me using images from his website.

[G Georgopoulos]

Full range drivers with a sub sounds cheap,can you reduce the price so i order one...

[Syrah]

Cool.  As a Canadian ex pat, it would be nice to have a little piece of Canada. I suspect we'll see more products like this as the dollar slides.

I'd be interested to hear how this stacks up against a Decware Rachael, for example.  This is cheaper, but not as good looking.

[Wolf Ear Audio]

Thank you Rob for the lovely review!

Cool.  As a Canadian ex pat, it would be nice to have a little piece of Canada. I suspect we'll see more products like this as the dollar slides.

I'd be interested to hear how this stacks up against a Decware Rachael, for example.  This is cheaper, but not as good looking.

It's what is on the inside that counts
Though I personally love minimalist designs myself (which is why I designed it that way, since I don't like the look of transformers sticking outside the chassis).
Most manufacturers don't use choke filtered power supplies (because of cost) and I don't know of any that use entirely film caps for the power supply as this one does because they usually cost over 10x as much per capacitor and are about 20x the size (other than the size and cost, film caps perform considerably better than any electrolytic, plus they never dry out!). I intend to implement these in any of my designs because it does nothing but increase performance. If you are more interested in the design, you can always message me.

[rajacat]

It would be interesting to see the interior of this amp.

[Wolf Ear Audio]

It would be interesting to see the interior of this amp.

Yep, I'll upload a picture tonight or tomorrow.

[ihor]

For those of us old-tech timers who still use a CD player and a tuner, the single set of inputs is a deal killer 

[SteveRB]

where are you located?

[Wolf Ear Audio]

For those of us old-tech timers who still use a CD player and a tuner, the single set of inputs is a deal killer 

I'll keep that in mind when I do a revision later on. Would three inputs be enough?

where are you located?

I am located in Siksika, Alberta, Canada

[ihor]

As I've been looking at affordable SETs, and the limited number of inputs is pretty widespread.  Two inputs would be good, three even better (could then add turntable to cd player and tuner).

[planet10]

Nice to see!

On our SE EL84 journey from Decware Zen copy to what we ended up with, we figured using poly caps in the power supply made a huge difference. We also found that moving from Triode wired to Schade wiring we went from 1.5 w to 3.9 w with no net loss in fidelity. How easy is it to go under the hood and tweak things? Or, i expect you are making these on a small scale, so are you willing to do custom builds?

How are you using the front end tube? Looks like you have 2 more triode sections than you need.

dave

[Wolf Ear Audio]

Nice to see!

On our SE EL84 journey from Decware Zen copy to what we ended up with, we figured using poly caps in the power supply made a huge difference. We also found that moving from Triode wired to Schade wiring we went from 1.5 w to 3.9 w with no net loss in fidelity. How easy is it to go under the hood and tweak things? Or, i expect you are making these on a small scale, so are you willing to do custom builds?

How are you using the front end tube? Looks like you have 2 more triode sections than you need.

dave

It would relatively easy to mod the amp if you so desired, however it would be dangerous unless you knew what you were doing and it would void the warranty.
The second triode section is a cathode follower driver stage (it provides no gain) for low distortion and output impedance. There are no unused triode sections and no feedback is used (I assume what you mean by Schade wiring is a pentode using anode feedback?).

[planet10]

It would relatively easy to mod the amp if you so desired, however I wouldn't warranty any custom work (if I did do it, which we could discuss in e-mail).

cool.

The second triode section is a cathode follower driver stage (it provides no gain) for low distortion and output impedance. There are no unused triode sections and no feedback is used (which I assume is what you mean by Schade wiring, a pentode using anode feedback?).

Is the CF sitting on top of a CCS? How much difference do you figure the CF makes? EL84 is a pretty easy tube to drive.

Yes schade is anode to anode feeback, EL84 wired as a pentode.

dave

[Wolf Ear Audio]

cool.

Is the CF sitting on top of a CCS? How much difference do you figure the CF makes? EL84 is a pretty easy tube to drive.

Yes schade is anode to anode feeback, EL84 wired as a pentode.

dave

I pm'd you since I do not want to derail the thread here.

[planet10]

Thanx.

dave

[nature boy]

Congratulations on the new amplifier.  Is this a true amp or an integrated?  Not sure what the front center knob is for .

NB

[Canada Rob]

It's a true amp with a volume pot or optional stepped attenuator.  It has no preamp section, but runs direct from source.  It would work fine with a separate preamp though.

[Rusty Jefferson]

......The second triode section is a cathode follower driver stage (it provides no gain) for low distortion and output impedance. There are no unused triode sections and no feedback is used....

What is the output impedance at each of the taps?

[Canada Rob]

Deleted

[Wolf Ear Audio]

What is the output impedance at each of the taps?

The output impedance is around 2.5 at the 8 ohm tap and 1.25 at the 4 ohm tap.