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SINGLE-ENDED VACUUM TUBE POWER AMPLIFIER

 
  

NOTE TO ML3 OWNERS:
We strongly recommend that you have a high quality digital voltmeter on hand in order to properly adjust and control the parameters of  the ML3s.   We use and recommend FLUKE model 87-V.  Using a cheap voltmeter is likely to give the wrong reading of the parameters resulting in improper adjustment, and, in the end, malfunction of the amp.

NOTE: 
12AX3/ 12BE3 tubes should be replaced every 1.5-2 years
GM-70 tube should be replaced every 1.5 years
to maintain the best performance of the amp
          

 

The ML3 is a single-ended (SE) tube amplifier utilizing a very powerful direct-heated triode GM-70 (125W plate dissipation) and a separate power supply. Combining the most sophisticated technologies and electronic design with graceful looks reminiscent of the classic era of tubes, the ML3 is our top-of-the-line, no-compromise product.

It is a 32-watt amplifier that operates in pure class A and utilizes no overall feedback. The topology is absolutely unique and incorporates one of the most advanced power supplies ever featured in an audio device. These factors, along with the designer’s unique vision and understanding of the underlying principles of audio electronics, make the ML3 an amplifier without peer.

With the ML3 as the centerpiece of a high-end system, the recorded event is recreated in one’s listening room with astonishing verisimilitude. The listener is able to experience an ephemeral yet tangible connection to the essence of the music. These are not empty claims. Those who have listened to the ML3 firsthand have unanimously acknowledged this phenomenon and have reported it to be utterly unique in their collective experience.

SE tube amplifiers, in general, have the potential to reproduce music with greater realism than any other amplifier type or topology. The reality, however, is another thing because of the limitations inherent in most designs.  These amplifiers can sound lovely in the midrange but their low and high frequency reproduction leaves much to be desired. The ML3 overcomes these obvious limitations.  The resultant sound is strikingly similar to the live event.

Along with the ML2.1, the ML3 is practically the only SE tube amplifier available capable of reproducing an entire range of audio frequencies – not just the exquisite midrange but also the most natural and extended bass and high frequencies. The amplifier’s innovative circuitry enables it to recreate the original spectral balance and harmonic structure of the recorded material without losing even the tiniest details and nuances. Due to its extraordinary transparency, the ML3 is also unmatched its ability to recreate a three-dimensional soundstage without boundaries and limitations. As with the ML2.1, the ML3 brings out the most natural sound performance inherent in the signal and unequivocally demonstrates what a properly designed single-ended amplifier can do.  

 

 

The most advanced technical solutions have been employed in the design of this amplifier. The custom-made output transformer is of peerless quality. This, along with the sophisticated power supply and unique front-end and output stages, enables the ML3 to drive most real-world speakers and yield tremendous sonic stability under most dynamic conditions.

 

The ML3 features:

• Innovative front-end circuitry (this design is unique to Lamm Industries, Inc.)
• Separate plate and filament transformers
• Six filter chokes
• Six rectifying tubes
• Highest quality film capacitors for the high voltage power supply that feeds the output stage
• Refined soft-start and time-delay circuitries
• An option to turn the amp on/off remotely

Each amplifier is carefully constructed and handcrafted of the finest materials and world-class parts, some of which include military-graded DALE metal film resistors, PRC wire-wound resistors, CADDOCK power film resistors, BOURNS multi-turn potentiometers, CORNELL DUBILIER and UNITED CHEMI-CON electrolytic capacitors, ELECTROCUBE, ELCON and ROEDERSTEIN film capacitors, HAMMOND chokes, gold-plated NEUTRIC and FISCHER connectors, heavy-duty gold-plated binding posts, and military-graded low-noise long-life vacuum tubes.

 

Special attention was given to designing the plate, filament, and output transformers. They have no mechanical contact with either the transformer cover or the chassis and are suspended in a special encapsulant that almost completely absorbs residual mechanical vibrations.  This plays a significant role in assuring the consummate clarity and micro-resolution of the ML3 during sound reproduction.

The ML3 has no overall feedback loop, however the amplifier features an option that allows the user to introduce a small amount of local feedback in the output stage.  Furthermore, there is a choice of two amounts of such feedback: NFB1 and NFB2, which differ in their levels.  Therefore, there are three options regarding feedback use in the amplifier: no feedback, NFB1 or NFB2.

A multi-turn trimming potentiometer accessible through a special opening in the amplifier’s chassis, along with a set of test points, allows the user to adjust and measure the plate current of the output tube via an external voltmeter.

The ML3 works on all world AC line voltages (100/120/220/230/240 V).  

 

Here is what the prominent audio critics have said about the ML3

 

...There are small amps, there are large amps, there are stereo amps, there are mono amps, and then there are Vladimir Lamm's ML3 Signature two-chassis monoblocks, demmed at FSI with Verity Lohengrin speakers, a Lamm L2 Reference preamplifier, LP2 phono preamp, NeoDio CD transport and DAC, and Kubala-Sosna cables, and Critical Mass Systems racks.

...Listening to Louis Armstrong singing "Blues in the Night" from LP, I auditioned the amps with no negative feedback and just 1.2dB of negative feedback. You wouldn't have thought it would make a difference, but darned if switching in even this minimal amount of feedback—which, in theory, should make the amplifier perform better—didn't diminish the enormous sense of space on the recording.

John Atkinson, Stereophile (April, 2008) - http://blog.stereophile.com/fsi2008/040708lamm/

 

...Jonathan Valin’s 
Most Significant New Product: The Lamm ML3 monoblock power amplifier.

Jonathan Valin, The Absolute Sound (April/May 2008, issue 181)

 

...32 Watts of single-ended power is not a very impressive characteristic on a background of a multitude of tube amplifiers that exist on this planet -- but that's not the case if we are talking about the amplifiers produced by the New York-based company Lamm Industries.  A head of the company, Vladimir Lamm -- well-known to the radio amateurs of the former USSR as Vladimir Shushurin -- developed a concept and topology of the GM-70 tube-based amplifier over 20 years ago.  The realization of this concept took tremendous effort, huge financial investments and engagement of the best transformer manufacturers in the world.  The working prototype was shown last year (at CES2007); this CES, the production unit debuted in a system with Wilson Audio Maxx2 speakers, which, by the way, are the not the easiest to drive.  However, the ML3's 32 Watts demonstrated quite clearly a complete superiority of the Watt quality over the Watt quantity.  Moreover, just based on the Show results, the ML3 is obviously so much more superior to all the possible contenders that it alone occupies the throne of the "Amplifier's Olympus".  

S. Taranov, Audio Magazine, issue 2 (79) 2008, page 42 (translated from Russian by E. Lamm)

click the links for the Russian text and ML3 images printed in the magazine

 

Lamm Industries launched the ML3 Signature ($139,290) -- a no-compromise 32Wpc single-ended tube amplifier based on the GM-70 directly heated triode.  It's the Ferrari of single-ended amps, considering the wattage to price ratio of over $4000 per watt.  No doubt about it, that first watt is pretty pricey, but it's the first watt that sets the stage, and is responsible for much of the musical enjoyment.  Rest assured that in this case, the first few watts appear to be as good as it gets in the domain of single-ended designs.  The custom output trannies are capable of wider bandwidth at full power than competing designs.  In other words, bass and treble response are not compromised for the sake of an exquisite midrange.

Dick Olsher, The Absolute Sound (April/May 2008, issue 181), page 62