SET and tube amp newbie question - do all SET circuits sounds similar?

[Dewey68]

Outside of audio shows I don't have any experience with tube amps. I recently purchased a pair of Klipsch Forte II speakers which got me thinking about trying a tube amp. I sit around 12' away from my speakers and according to an app on my iPhone I normally listen to music at about 70-80 DB peak. Based on that, I think a SEX 4 kit would suit my needs as I don't need any controls.

Are all of Bottlehead's amps going to have a similar "sound" since they are all SET designs?

 

[Karl5150]

Traditionally BH amps have had a 'Bottlehead house sound', even the discontinued Seductor, which was not an SET amp.
As far as the SEX 4, the Pauls would likely be best to answer questions about its sound compared to other designs.
At 4W/Ch, it should provide plenty of power for speakers rated at 99dB/1W/1m.
Karl

 

[Jameson]

I use the SEX 4 in my office to drive a pair of Blumenstein Orcas. They're less efficient than the Forte IIs, but they get plenty loud for desktop use with the lower feedback mode (80-85dB cranked all the way up and about 10 feet away according to my iPhone).

The sound is going to depend on a lot of factors. What tubes you use (much smaller variety with the 6FM7s than, say, 12AT7s in a Steremour), what speakers you have, what your source is, what the room is like, so on and so on.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Are all of Bottlehead's amps going to have a similar "sound" since they are all SET designs?

Similar, on a large scale, definitely. I'd say for your application that you'd notice a difference between a Stereomour and the SEX 4 in low gain operation that's likely to favor the Stereomour, but these differences will seem pretty small if you pivot from these experiments and substitute a solid state amplifier.