My pleasure, John. This is a good hobby with the right folk, like you!
Some more comments below:>When you state that your amps are SET freindly, what do you mean; >the output impedance is low?
My _speakers_ are SET friendly, meaning even an amp with a low damping factor like a SET can drive them. The speakers have fairly uniform impedances.
>If your amp is cathode biased then there is a feedback loop through >the bias cap
Cathode biasing is a method of biasing a tube where the bias is generated by the voltage drop across a resistor in the cathode. The grid is referred to ground through a resistor, and the current flow through the cathode resistor produces a positive cathode voltage with respect to the grid, which is effectively the same as making the grid negative with respect to the cathode.
I don't know enough about tube amp design to state if a cathode bias always results in NFB...i am inclined to state it does not. Also, based on the definition here, I am not sure what a bias cap is.
>like all SS amps I have ever heard it sounds a little flat and two >dimensional
This may be the result of the SET amps interactions with your speakers. Can you tell us what speakers you use?
I am not saying that a SET is bad. Obviously I love SETs. However, I think SETs add richness and dimensionality mainly thru audible distortion (which is fine with me.. i am not shooting for perfection, merely my own enjoyment.) It IS possible I think to achieve good sound with neutral speakers and a neutral SS amp as well. It will just cost a lot more (neutral speakers are very hard to build, and cost almost always much more than homebrews), and the sound will miss the richness that even order distortion can bring.
I am interested in your review of the Stoetkit! Looking forward to it.
-akhilesh