Hi, everyone! My real world name is Mats and I am a tubegeek without a tube amp, a coffegeek without an espresso machine and a jazzgeek with a broken trumpet. Going to fix issue number one though, hopefully with the help of you nice guys here on this lovely forum!
Me being New Old Stock is because I have managed to build some audio electronics a few years ago, but really still fell very "unused", "not burnt-in" and "not out of the box", just like the well known audio component often associated with the NOS acronym... Right now, music in our home is delivered by a Musical Fidelity CD, a transistor amp (The End, DIY-kit from LC Audio) and a pair of Spendor S-100:s. But now, 'dem sand amps gotta go. Gonna bury´em in two subs
New Old Stock could also be a good description of the audio gear I am planning to give birth to, expecting the little ones to come out during these coming 12-36 months or so... (I know, I´ve got the pregnancy period of an elephant
, but being a father of three small real human children also means not having very much spare time ...or spare money... on your hands for your electronic creations)
So, what about the planned audio gear? It´s tubes, record player stuff and loudspeakers... Thats right, the whole chain of stuff. Been reading and collecting rather a lot of info the last year so, for the record, here we go:
1. Record player: the Ladegaard tonearm for my sleeping Well Tempered. Started on it, perhaps perhaps perhaps (PPP! acronym boy at it again!) before christmas...
2. Amps: line amp first. I read about The Foz line amp and liked the looks of it. Anyone here built it?
3. Amps: power amp second. There is some (light) doubt here. Perhaps a PSE? I have a schematic for an EL34 PSE, looks quite good. Or perhaps some kind of PP IT parafeed? With cheaper tubes than the 300B:s.... the ralph amp perhaps?
3 1/2 RIAA amp. T Loesch´s Toccata probably, if I am up to it. Scared of building them small signal amps. Been there, done that. Perhaps this time?
4. Loudspeakers: TL:s or ML TL seems to be a logical choice for me with the above amps. The Ariels seem oh-so-good. But perhaps it would be wiser to start with Martin Kings ML TL:s ? Not quite as expensive, really...
Well, something like that and maybe in that order. Hope to be on my way out of the cardboard box, soldering away happily this fall... Wish me luck!
Yours tubily
/zix
Me being New Old Stock is because I have managed to build some audio electronics a few years ago, but really still fell very "unused", "not burnt-in" and "not out of the box", just like the well known audio component often associated with the NOS acronym... Right now, music in our home is delivered by a Musical Fidelity CD, a transistor amp (The End, DIY-kit from LC Audio) and a pair of Spendor S-100:s. But now, 'dem sand amps gotta go. Gonna bury´em in two subs
New Old Stock could also be a good description of the audio gear I am planning to give birth to, expecting the little ones to come out during these coming 12-36 months or so... (I know, I´ve got the pregnancy period of an elephant
, but being a father of three small real human children also means not having very much spare time ...or spare money... on your hands for your electronic creations)So, what about the planned audio gear? It´s tubes, record player stuff and loudspeakers... Thats right, the whole chain of stuff. Been reading and collecting rather a lot of info the last year so, for the record, here we go:
1. Record player: the Ladegaard tonearm for my sleeping Well Tempered. Started on it, perhaps perhaps perhaps (PPP!
acronym boy at it again!) before christmas...2. Amps: line amp first. I read about The Foz line amp and liked the looks of it. Anyone here built it?
3. Amps: power amp second. There is some (light) doubt here. Perhaps a PSE? I have a schematic for an EL34 PSE, looks quite good. Or perhaps some kind of PP IT parafeed? With cheaper tubes than the 300B:s.... the ralph amp perhaps?
3 1/2 RIAA amp. T Loesch´s Toccata probably, if I am up to it. Scared of building them small signal amps. Been there, done that. Perhaps this time?
4. Loudspeakers: TL:s or ML TL seems to be a logical choice for me with the above amps. The Ariels seem oh-so-good. But perhaps it would be wiser to start with Martin Kings ML TL:s ? Not quite as expensive, really...
Well, something like that and maybe in that order. Hope to be on my way out of the cardboard box, soldering away happily this fall... Wish me luck!
Yours tubily
/zix
oh, good! another WT user! Hi!
I will probably be using an Ortofon Kontrapunkt b for the Ladegaard. Compliance is 12um/mN... Should work, I hope. May I ask what cartridge you are using?
Have you managed to solve the VTA adjustment issue? I have been thinking a lot of some easy-to-build mechanism for adjusting VTA. I think I´ve got a solution for people like me, that don´t have anything else than a drill and a mitre saw at home. But it might prove to be too unstable in the real world - we´ll see. Basically I will be moving the arm base up or down along an 8mm threaded rod (or possibly an unthreaded rod, with an extra 5mm threaded rod for the VTA adjustment, it is easy to change this), with two "support points" to keep the base from swinging in the horizontal plane when adjusting VTA).
Thank you very much, slowmotion. Well done, getting through my long post!
I will probably be using an Ortofon Kontrapunkt b for the Ladegaard. Compliance is 12um/mN... Should work, I hope. May I ask what cartridge you are using?
Have you managed to solve the VTA adjustment issue? I have been thinking a lot of some easy-to-build mechanism for adjusting VTA. I think I´ve got a solution for people like me, that don´t have anything else than a drill and a mitre saw at home. But it might prove to be too unstable in the real world - we´ll see. Basically I will be moving the arm base up or down along an 8mm threaded rod (or possibly an unthreaded rod, with an extra 5mm threaded rod for the VTA adjustment, it is easy to change this), with two "support points" to keep the base from swinging in the horizontal plane when adjusting VTA).
Re: oh, good! another WT user! Hi!
Hi zix
I'm using a Audio-Technica AT-OC10 at the moment,
thinking of maybe having my old wreck of a Rosewood repaired,
not using an arm-lift can be fatal.
My arm looks a bit like a very basic Air-Tangent,
2 vertical posts with lock-screws hold the arm in position,
a vertical adjustment-screw moves the arm up or down.
Whatever you do, be sure to lock everything tight
when you are not actually adjusting something.
cheers
zix said:
Hi zix
I'm using a Audio-Technica AT-OC10 at the moment,
thinking of maybe having my old wreck of a Rosewood repaired,
not using an arm-lift can be fatal.
My arm looks a bit like a very basic Air-Tangent,
2 vertical posts with lock-screws hold the arm in position,
a vertical adjustment-screw moves the arm up or down.
Whatever you do, be sure to lock everything tight
when you are not actually adjusting something.
cheers
Hi Zix,
Welcome.
Some interesting ideas and projects you've got there. The Ralph amp would probably be excellent based on my experience with fully PP amps of similar design.
Not so sure about the Foz. If you want a gain of about 4, why not try a 12B4 at 120V/25mA without the feedback? It's a cheap, available and good sounding tube.
I'll build a Laadegard myself one of these days.
Cheers
Welcome.
Some interesting ideas and projects you've got there. The Ralph amp would probably be excellent based on my experience with fully PP amps of similar design.
Not so sure about the Foz. If you want a gain of about 4, why not try a 12B4 at 120V/25mA without the feedback? It's a cheap, available and good sounding tube.
I'll build a Laadegard myself one of these days.
Cheers
Slowmotion:
Ouch. Pain. Yep, I guess I´ll probably need to make some kind of basic arm-lift. The original WT tonearm damping oil was nice, but it didn´t stop my oldest kid from "examining" the cartridge and the arm (he was only 2 at the time). That was the end of a Sumiko BPS cartridge...
Brett
Hmmm... only 120V for the B+? Nice one. I hadn´t heard about the 12B4 before. Don´t know how I managed to miss it though since it seems to be everywhere on the web, tubecad, aa, all sorts of places... I am not a designer though, so if you have a particular design/schematic to recommend, you are very welcome! Thanks for your input!
Ouch. Pain. Yep, I guess I´ll probably need to make some kind of basic arm-lift. The original WT tonearm damping oil was nice, but it didn´t stop my oldest kid from "examining" the cartridge and the arm (he was only 2 at the time). That was the end of a Sumiko BPS cartridge...
I get the picture. I will heed. It´s no big problem making one of the support posts into a stop screw (I know I´m bad at explaining this but I promise to post some images of this project in the appropriate subforum if I ever get it finished...)
Brett
Hmmm... only 120V for the B+? Nice one. I hadn´t heard about the 12B4 before. Don´t know how I managed to miss it though since it seems to be everywhere on the web, tubecad, aa, all sorts of places... I am not a designer though, so if you have a particular design/schematic to recommend, you are very welcome! Thanks for your input!
ML TL, ralph, 12B4. Not bad, maybe.
Dave,
so you would try the ML TL first...
yep, its probably a LOT easier to build. Which is good for me. It looks simple, anyway. And I wouldn´t lose as much sleep if it didn´t turn out the way I hoped as if the Ariels were to become a disappointment. Time to start looking for the FE-208...
Thanks for your input, Dave!
Brett,
Thanks again, Brett! Your reply came at the right time, it seems - I saw fdegroves 12B4 buffer yesterday, that might be a good one. 1Meg attenuator, jeez.
So: 12B4 line stage, ralph amp and ML TL:s. Hmmm, moving away a bit from my original plans here. But that´s okay... Anyone interested in a pair of british made SE OPT:s?
Dave,
so you would try the ML TL first...
yep, its probably a LOT easier to build. Which is good for me. It looks simple, anyway. And I wouldn´t lose as much sleep if it didn´t turn out the way I hoped as if the Ariels were to become a disappointment. Time to start looking for the FE-208...
Thanks for your input, Dave!
Brett,
Thanks again, Brett! Your reply came at the right time, it seems - I saw fdegroves 12B4 buffer yesterday, that might be a good one. 1Meg attenuator, jeez.
So: 12B4 line stage, ralph amp and ML TL:s. Hmmm, moving away a bit from my original plans here. But that´s okay... Anyone interested in a pair of british made SE OPT:s?
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