Lets hear about your Valve Amp/s that you love and enjoy :)

[Guest Muon N']

We haven't had much chatter about our valve amps for a while, so.... (This is a little different to the "show us your tubes" thread)

 

OK, I'll start

 

Although, I'm looking forward to hearing about others valve amps and what they like about them and the system sound powered by them. Use any flowery descriptions you like that best describes things for you. This is meant to be fun and enjoyable.

 

EL34 Winged C's Triode strapped class AB.

 

Only around 20 watts per channel but it fed with a slightly modified Marantz CD-60se into some older Lenehan ML-1's and it connects me to the music like not many amps have. For myself this is musical, engaging and emotive, it has depth and body......harmonically rich, maybe not as much as some of what you other guys have........but it will get better still with a tweak here and there, for more harmonic richness and transparency while retaining the other stuff like that meat on the bones

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Muon N'

[betty boop]

Mine is the unison research s6 integrated. It is described by the italian maker as a single-ended parallel, ultraliner pure A class and capable of some 30-35 wpc. IT runs 3x EL34B per channel Russian tung-sol from the factory for power stage and 1 x 12Ax7 per channel also Russian tung sol in the pre stage. I purchased this after a shop demo that was most unexpected and after making sure how it sounded at home. Great to have this thing. I've been through a few amps through the system here, so very pleased to have finally settled on something that has worked in so well. What i love about it is engaging nature of sound. Way renders vocals, the meaty nature of it that makes you want to just listen to it track after track after track...

 

 

the rest of the system ?

 

for speakers the S6 powers a pair of focal 1007Be stand mounts that I love the sound off for very similar reasons to the integrated. A pair i have had for some years after experimenting with a lot of speakers in the bedroom setup here.  I did run a velodyne DD12 subwoofer with these for some years which put a lot of effort into measuring and integrating. But since getting the s6 valve integrated really don't feel the need for the subwoofer and so sold and removed that from the system. For source its the very lovely Marantz KI-Ruby. I love both CD and SACDs and it is my one source and all I need in this system. It is a joy to use and complements well the rest of the gear.

 

 

 

[aussievintage]

My contribution will be mostly SE.

 

First one I built was a  6AQ5 amp with 6DJ8 driver.  Triode strapped it only gives a couple of watts, but very sweet.  I particularly like using 6005 valves in place of the 6AQ5s. 

 

Then I built an EL34 based amp.  Lots more power, and a more mid-rangey sound.  I then figured out I could build an amp with some configurable biasing that would accept a range of power devices, so I made an all octal amp, using 6SN7s in front and the outputs can be EL34, 6V6, 6L6, 6550, and others.  This allowed me to sample the valves.  Strange, but the one I like the most was the 6550 valves, underbiased as a 6V6.   It was not working hard, and that's how it sounded, lay back and easy.

 

I built a 6BM8 based SE amp as an exercise to see just how small I could make it.  All in a tiny jiffy box including power transformer.  The point to point wiring is very 3 dimensional and tricky.   6BM8s have a nice wide range sound.  Akai used them in their smaller reel to reel tape players. 

 

I also (re)built a 6L6 UL PP mono amp that someone had originally made based on a Playmaster design.  I use this in my other listening room where I have a mono setup, mainly for playing 78s and 45s on a Garrard changer !   The aim is a system that sounds like a valve juke box, and I think I have succeeded.

 

Last, and most used, is a true SET, based on a 6B4G valve.  This is an indirectly heated triode, with an octal base.  The internals are identical to the 2A3 with a 6 volt filament.  I love this one.  Despite being back to a couple of watts, it sounds so sweet, clear and detailed.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by aussievintage

[Mendes]

Did someone say valve amps............now you're talking.... 

 

Here is my 300B Based SET power amp (complete with separate power supply) and my trusty valve pre-amp.

 

8 or 9 watts of pure joy.

 

AMP (box on the right)- 12AU7 signal, 6L6 driver into 300B output tube.

PSU (box on the left)- each tube on the amp gets it own PS and choke - 6X4 to 12AU7, 5U4GB to 6L6 and the big potato masher's feed 300B's.

 

Would not have a clue how these measure ......... I just know they give me great joy when driving my speakers, both the 2 ways and the woofers are driven by the power amp.

 

Needless to say, they excel with vocals, live recordings and jazz, but can rock when called on.

 

Hope you enjoy and looking forward to seeing what else is out their........

 

 

 

[Ittaku]

Love mine at the back, currently auditioning the ones at the front.

 

[tchye nguyen]

I love old Valve amplifiers and if You love Valve ampli. Old stock tubes always give You best sound analog sound. I own Radford STA 25 Mk3. Leak TL50 plus mono block. Leak TL25 plus mono block. RCA LMI 32216A mono block.,

[tchye nguyen]

Radford sound nice and fast. RCA nice midrange. LEAK IS DYNAMIC.

[aussievintage]

I won't post too many pictures of mine.  They're all prototypes and tend to look like

 

 

Just noticed the rectifier is missing, but you get the idea

[Sub Sonic]

4 hours ago, aussievintage said:

I won't post too many pictures of mine.  They're all prototypes and tend to look like

 

 

Just noticed the rectifier is missing, but you get the idea

I actually don’t mind the industrial look, to me it is more about how they sound. Looks are a bonus

 

Recently I purchased a little 6BM8 single ended beam tetrode (6v4 rectifier) from a retired gentleman who originally came from Russia - his life’s work was amplifiers, he has built around 2,000 valve amps and around 1,000 solid state amps. He mentioned when he moved from Russia that he left 3,000 kg of transformers/transformer steel behind (!) as it was not feasible to bring across. He definitely prefers valves over solid state.

 

The amp has been built inside a repurposed chassis, and only has about 1.8-2 watts per channel. The sound though is absolutely glorious, soundstage is spacious, and voice, strings, woodwind, piano etc sound brilliant. “Delicate” and “beautiful” are words I would use to describe the sound, but it doesn’t sound “warm”,  just natural.

 

 It is definitely more of a “classical” amp, but as that is what I enjoy, it suits me down to the ground. It can also go surprisingly loud for such a small output. It uses small vintage Rola OPTs from the 1960’s.

 

Loving it

 

SS

[Guest Misterioso]

17 hours ago, Muon N' said:

We haven't had much chatter about our valve amps for a while, so.... (This is a little different to the "show us your tubes" thread)

 

OK, I'll start

 

Although, I'm looking forward to hearing about others valve amps and what they like about them and the system sound powered by them. Use any flowery descriptions you like that best describes things for you. This is meant to be fun and enjoyable.

 

EL34 Winged C's Triode strapped class AB.

 

Only around 20 watts per channel but it fed with a slightly modified Marantz CD-60se into some older Lenehan ML-1's and it connects me to the music like not many amps have. For myself this is musical, engaging and emotive, it has depth and body......harmonically rich, maybe not as much as some of what you other guys have........but it will get better still with a tweak here and there, for more harmonic richness and transparency while retaining the other stuff like that meat on the bones

 

 

 

Have you tried moving the speakers a bit more apart from each other? Looks very close to me. Just saying, hope you don't mind.

[aussievintage]

15 minutes ago, Sub Sonic said:

The amp has been built inside a repurposed chassis, and only has about 1.8-2 watts per channel.

Must be triode-strapped.  That is good for the sound, but gives less power.

 

15 minutes ago, Sub Sonic said:

The sound though is absolutely glorious, soundstage is spacious, and voice, strings, woodwind, piano etc sound brilliant. “Delicate” and “beautiful” are words I would use to describe the sound, but it doesn’t sound “warm”,  just natural.

 

 It is definitely more of a “classical” amp, but as that is what I enjoy, it suits me down to the ground.

Yes SETs love that stuff.

 

16 minutes ago, Sub Sonic said:

It uses small vintage Rola OPTs from the 1960’s.

My 6AQ5 amp uses Rolas - exactly that vintage. 

[Guest Muon N']

18 minutes ago, Misterioso said:

Have you tried moving the speakers a bit more apart from each other? Looks very close to me. Just saying, hope you don't mind.

No, don't mind, but the side to our right viewing the pic is a traffic area to bedrooms/bathroom, and if I moved the left speaker further left it would be too close to the side wall and into the corner.

 

Renting and sharing an average sized unit means compromises, so I choose the lesser evils

 

Edit: it is a bit annoying in one respect, the end of a three seater lounge is just out of shot on the right, a three seater that neither I our the house mate sits on as we are rarely seated in the lounge room at the same time

Edited October 8, 2019 by Muon N'

[MattyW]

My current favorite amp is a Wavebourn Edelweiss-3 power amp prototype which utilizes CV1127 radar sweep tubes.

 

 

 

 

I did find it ever so slightly lacking before I removed the 0.33uf Bennic coupling caps and installed 0.22uf Miflex KPCU-1 in their place.  It was something of a tight fit though thankfully they did indeed fit

 

 

Once done I have to say that this is without doubt the best audio I've heard though it's not really fair to attribute the chance entirely to the amp as too much has changed in my system in too short a time.

 

Sound is now utterly natural with an in the same room quality to recordings exposing detail I've never heard before though in a completely natural and organic manner. Likewise sound has a richness and weight to it which I've never before heard from reproduced music. Massed strings sound glorious,  and piano actually sounds like real piano rather than a recording of a piano. Nothing short of spectacular.

 

Other changes to my system are:

 

1. Muji Studio DAC II: Phillips TDA1541A R1 changed to an S1, NE5532P OPAMPS changed to Burson V5i-D&  V6 Vivid, tube coupling & output caps changed to Miflex KFPM-1

 

2. Harrison Labs 12db RCA attenuator + Jensen 1:1 transformers between the Muji Studio DAC II and LTA MZ3 preamp

 

3. New DIY Open Back speakers: Aurum Cantus G3Si ribbon tweeter, Skar Audio VX1-ST bullet tweeter (firing at the ceiling), 10" Zenith 49CZ924 wide range driver, 15" Magnavox Alnico driver, Mundorf L200 8.5mH inductors, 5uf Cornell Dubilier SF + 0.47uf Duelund JAM caps, Duelund cotton covered oil impregnated stranded tinned copper wire.

 

4. S.M.S.L. SA98E amp driving the woofers (bi-amped) for my speakers, until it's replaced with a Dayton APA150.

 

So yeah, a bit hard to attribute everything to the amp when so much has changed in a 2 month time span. Very happy with where it is right now though. I may add a 1uf Cornell Dubilier 940c on the tweeters in parallel to the other two caps to drop the crossover point a bit though otherwise the only other thing I may change is swap the Zenith 49CZ924 for a 10" Diatone P610 clone out of China.  Those are great sounding drivers 

 

EDIT: Actually I'm just going to leave things as they are. I'd have to be stupid to mess with it when it sounds this good (not that I've not been stupid before or anything). This setup has redefined my thoughts on high fidelity sound reproduction.

Edited October 9, 2019 by MattyW

[Be Quiet...Listen]

My Hifi journey really got serious when I purchased my first valves (from a dear friend after much auditioning) and set me off on a course of much exploration. Not too mention an immediate downsizing of my collection that instantly seemed irrelevant. These amps are the Luxman MB-3045’s. They were love at first listen and the very last things I will ever part with! 

I also own EAR 509’s, Radford MA25’s & SC22P Pre, Radford STA25, Leak ST20 & Point One Pre and a few others. 

[aussievintage]

17 minutes ago, Be Quiet...Listen said:

These amps are the Luxman MB-3045’s. They were love at first listen and the very last things I will ever part with! 

Just googled a picture.  Lovely looking amps..

[betty boop]

1 hour ago, Be Quiet...Listen said:

My Hifi journey really got serious when I purchased my first valves (from a dear friend after much auditioning) and set me off on a course of much exploration. Not too mention an immediate downsizing of my collection that instantly seemed irrelevant. These amps are the Luxman MB-3045’s. They were love at first listen and the very last things I will ever part with! 

I also own EAR 509’s, Radford MA25’s & SC22P Pre, Radford STA25, Leak ST20 & Point One Pre and a few others. 

do post some pics when can QBL, dont leave us hanging

[aussievintage]

On 08/10/2019 at 12:35 PM, tchye nguyen said:

I love old Valve amplifiers and if You love Valve ampli. Old stock tubes always give You best sound analog sound. I own Radford STA 25 Mk3. Leak TL50 plus mono block. Leak TL25 plus mono block. RCA LMI 32216A mono block.,

 

I love those fat bottle power tubes.  What an impressive collection

[aussievintage]

 

I just posted the underside of this in the DIY thread, but I guess it applies here.  This is my test bed for preamp circuits. So not pretty, extra holes drilled for past uses etc, cardboard insulator on the transformer.  Still love seeing those valves all lined up!

 

Currently running, from the left,  two Philips Miniwatt 12AX7s as a phono preamp, two AWV (I think) 12AU7s as a gain stage and cathode follower output, then a lovely GE  JG-6X4WA rectifier Has extra rods internally and just generally nicely built and rugged.

 

In the background is another 12AX7 based standalone phono preamp.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by aussievintage

[aussievintage]

Always amazed at just how capable these tiny phone cameras really can be.  Here's an attempt to get right inside a 12AX7 and see the hot bits.  

 

[Sub Sonic]

1 hour ago, aussievintage said:

Always amazed at just how capable these tiny phone cameras really can be.  Here's an attempt to get right inside a 12AX7 and see the hot bits.  

 

They are pretty good these days

 

I did the same a few months ago with a little eBay preamp kit (different valves though, I replaced the original Chinese ones, along with decent capacitors).

 

 

And another

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Sub Sonic

[Ittaku]

On 08/10/2019 at 12:58 PM, Ittaku said:

Love mine at the back, currently auditioning the ones at the front.

 

BTW if you're looking for my review/comparison of these amps in my system, it's in this post below:

https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/246935-amateur-ob-speaker-builder-and-his-arc-based-digital-system/?do=findComment&comment=4394967

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Ittaku

[Al.M]

22 year old Chinese Spark 530 KT88 50w 32kg, great detail, imaging, voices and good drive

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Al.M

[MattyW]

On 08/10/2019 at 5:29 PM, Misterioso said:

Have you tried moving the speakers a bit more apart from each other? Looks very close to me. Just saying, hope you don't mind.

There's a hallway to the right and sliding door to the left.... Don't want to accidentally knock over those lovely speakers.... 

 

With respect to my little single ended 6WPC Wavebourn amp, one of the interesting features is the knob on the front allowing you to switch between various modes of operation, such as current driven, single ended triode, single ended triode with some damping and servo controlled. I prefer servo controlled as it sounds fantastic with anything I play through it.  Jazz, classical,  acoustic, pop, rock, electronic etc.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by MattyW

[A9X]

I've designed and built a lot of valve amps over the years. It may amuse some, given my general stance on valve amps, but I enjoy the design and construction, much less the sound.

 

The best I ever built was a monster class A PP that used trioded 813s (later GM70s) for the outputs. Input and drive were (SS) cascoded D3a and EL34. Front and and driver were regulated, driver-power had grid chokes to allow a cleaner clipping response, D3a and EL34 had current regulated heaters the the power LCLC.

 

It was huge, about the size of a 2 drawer filing cabinet and generated lots of heat as it sucked a lot of power from the mains. There were 2 reasons I disassembled it: I went active (5 way speakers at the time) and the heat. I was living in Nth NSW at the time and it was just too hot in summer. However, you could easily read in from of it in a darkened room.

 

Not mine (goolag search), but this will give an idea of what an 813 looks like lit.

[aussievintage]

6 minutes ago, A9X said:

The best I ever built was a monster class A PP that used trioded 813s (later GM70s) for the outputs. Input and drive were (SS) cascoded D3a and EL34. Front and and driver were regulated, driver-power had grid chokes to allow a cleaner clipping response, D3a and EL34 had current regulated heaters the the power LCLC.

 

Yes, serious stuff when you use EL34s to drive the output tubes