Seductor amp retiring

[Doc B]

Just three left as of 3/12/18

"I built a Seductor.  Zero noise.  Nice little amp.  The EL84 is awesome.  Do it."

"I would second that, I built a Seductor also- the sound is fabulous."

We have iron for just three more Seductor stereo single ended EL84 amp kits. Seductor has 4 watts per channel of single ended EL84 goodness, or buy two and use them as sweet and punchy 8 watt per channel monoblocks. When they are gone, they are gone for good. If you want one, grab it quick!

https://bottlehead.com/product/seductor-single-ended-el84-amplifier-kit/

 

[Doc B]

Now there are two left. Thanks, Steve!

 

[Doc B]

All sold, thank you so much!

 

[Jamier]

Doc,
    Are you planning to release a new version of the Seductor (or a completely new amp) to replace the current version?

Jamie

 

[Doc B]

I don't have any plans to at this time. We have so much going on right now it's kind of making my head spin. So I'm only thinking about two or three new products at a time.

 

[SETup]

Hello Doc,

Why was the Seductor dropped?  I've heard it was an extremely good sounding amp.  My only gripe was it had no volume control, so a pre and an extra interconnect was needed.  It would be nice to see a stand alone EL84 from Bottlehead.

 

[Doc B]

It seems that the Stereomour II was a more desirable amp at that power level for most, as it outsold the Seductor by a wide margin. Perhaps that's at least in part because it is an integrated amp as you have expressed interest in. Developing this integrated amp idea a bit further, would there be a market for an integrated amp kit that included a phono stage?

 

[Alonzo]

Pre and Phono together would be great!!! I like my amps plain.  But that would mean removing my BeePree and that would be a fight.  Serious, no rules dirty fight.

 

[SETup]

Just line level in with passive volume, and at least 2 inputs, either with rotary switching between or a toggle.  No phono stage and no built in DAC, just basic.  My guess is most users will have a DAC plugged into it.  I have found over the years that these flea powered single ended amps do wonders with digital.  I was considering the Seductor for my Omega Alnicos, and alas I find it's gone.  With a slight rearrangement of the top plate, I think the 2 above mentioned features could be added.  My experience with EL84 and 6P15P tubed amps has been some of the best in my 40+ years in audio.  Cheap to roll tubes too.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Just line level in with passive volume, and at least 2 inputs, either with rotary switching between or a toggle.  No phono stage and no built in DAC, just basic. 

The Stereomour does exactly that, but sounds a bit better than the Seductor did.  There was not enough room on the Seductor chassis for these extra parts.

 

[SETup]

The Stereomour II is about double the price of the Seductor, so it's an apples to oranges comparison.  My personal belief is the
Seductor wasn't a great seller because it had no volume control, so couldn't be a stand alone amp.

 

[Doc B]

One thing I have learned in 25 years of doing this stuff is that no matter which way you roll it you can't always please everyone. And so we have to make decisions based upon what sells. Seductor is a really nice sounding design that was intended to be a power amp kit that was a lower cost alternative to the Kaiju. Our lower priced integrated amp kit with volume control alternative to Stereomour II is the S.E.X. kit. I do understand that you specifically want an integrated EL84 amp that fits your specific requirements. Unfortunately sometimes we end up diluting the market with so many choices that some just don't sell well enough to justify their manufacture. Adding another EL84 amp with a volume control to fit in between S.E.X. and Stereomour II might seem like a good idea, but our numbers don't support the notion. It's exceptionally difficult to determine price points that will be well received. One might think that the less expensive kits far outsell the more expensive ones, but that is not always the case. There are days when I think we might just concentrate our efforts on the most premium kits, as they tend to sell quite well. That's a shame in some sense because I think the value for the dollar is pretty consistent across the entire product range. Since this kit had a long enough run that everyone who wanted one should have been able to acquire one, and since we need to focus our energy on current products I'm going to close this thread.