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Hello from Ozeland

My name is Stan and I am heavy into all things analogue - turntables, loudspeakers ( especially small, monitor type, time aligned, 1st order x-over, etc.), tubes (or valves depending on your religion), single ended amps (Pass labs style) and good red wine. It's great to be part of this worldwide DIY community.

Regards

Stan
 
audio and tubes

My name pier

and i like audio specially tubes
i do design tubes amps, and i still wondering how to make my tubes amps sound better and much better

since now tubes single end is still the best in my ear bud
i would love to hear a comment, disscussion, tips and trick
on amps design specially tubes to make them sound for the best

it's nice to join this DIY audio forum
thank you everybody

best regard
:cool: pier
 
amps or speaker

lemondog:

hai too
i am using single end 2a3 6b4g directheat tubes as the power amplifier, and using an oval speaker from old telefunken radio

and based on my experience a lightweight speaker cone is more suitable to my taste.

so, tell me about your amps:)








tubes and tubes
:D
 
Im a bit of a power mad person myself, im desinging a 1.6Kwatt power amp its basicaly two amps that run in bridge op each amp using 16 'push-pull' transistors and can drive loads down to 2 ohms. (IRFP240)

My past accomplishments (spelling soz:rolleyes: ) is a 400 watt amp that can pack a punch..... altho my real joy is building the speaker that go with them thats where my money comes from...:D eminence speakers rule! im using 2 kilomax pro-18's as the bass drives and i like to use active Xovers (better Fq response IMHO)
 
Re: amps or speaker

Hello Pier and Stan,

welcome, like your taste :)

Stan,
could be that analog and TT-related stuff is growing on this forum and we soon get an own board for that

Originally posted by p31r
i am using single end 2a3 6b4g directheat tubes as the power amplifier, and using an oval speaker from old telefunken radio



and based on my experience a lightweight speaker cone is more suitable to my taste.

Pier,
this sounds like a serious music hedonist's rig :), agree with lightweight cone speakers although i downgraded from a Lowther PM6A (6gr) to a Fertin FLB20EX (18gr) recently. Curretly i am trying out how an Altec 414-8C sounds when its sond is not spoilt by any enclosure :) can tell you it sounds just gorgeous. If combined with e.g. a diatone speaker and a 1st order XO, this could make a wonderful 2way open baffle speaker.

Do yo use the Telefunken speaker in an open baffle? So it originally was used, i do not remember having seen any Grandma radio being near to having an "enclosure" as we know it today; all of them had perforated backwalls.
Probably best to use it in the original housing.
 
Hi stani772577... welkom at this great website..
.. just a note to let you know that I was totally into red wine before I started doing DIY audio...
espesially.. Bordeaux... my greatest bottles are a 1964 Ch. (Cru Classe)
1985 Ch. Palmer (2e Gru)
1975 Ch. Belgrave (?e cru)
1990 Ch. Chevalle(?) Cru Classe A St. Emmilion !!!
I have tasted over 20 Medoc Cru Classés and about 25 St. Emmilion Cru Classés.. I went on hlliday to the Bourgundy.. Tasted 34 wines.. . still enjoy a good bottle in the weekend. :) .. If you gat any recommandations... please let me know..

many greetings from Thijs
 
Bordeaux wines and malt whiskies

hello Stan and Thijs

Originally posted by tschrama [/i.. just a note to let you know that I was totally into red wine before I started
doing DIY audio... espesially.. Bordeaux... my greatest bottles are a 1964 Ch. (Cru Classe)
1985 Ch. Palmer (2e Gru)
1975 Ch. Belgrave (?e cru)
1990 Ch. Chevalle(?) Cru Classe A St. Emmilion !!!
I have tasted over 20 Medoc Cru Classés and about 25 St. Emmilion Cru Classés..
I went on hlliday to the Bourgundy.. Tasted 34 wines.. . still enjoy a good
bottle in the weekend. :) .. If you gat any recommandations... please let me
know..


looks like you folks mean business with great Bordeaux! :) I wish i had your
experience, Thijs. Anyway, any recommendations welcome!

Having lost a dear friend to King Alcohol addiction and having several dear relatives and buddies struggling with alcohol, i rarely drink. I made it an almost iron rule for myself to only drink alcohol when i have company or when i am thoroughly happy, both not happening very often. And to ruthlessly and thoroughly substitute quantity by quality, another iron rule.

If i would drink a bootle of Bordeaux alone, i'd be totally stoned, no training, so for Bordeaux i need company :). Unfortunately my buddies always
want to try out one of my single malts, so, sorry, no Bordeaux this time.

But i also tried out some nice bottles, most of them not very old, but a Chateau Margaux and a Fijac was among them. Not bad at all :). But the biggest grenade was a 1983 Chateau Meyney from Saint Estephe which had no sign of any Cru on its label. The bottle was a gift from a friend who was very surprised that no pedigree was on that label; earlier and later Meyneys had some smaller Grand Cru printed on. Anyway, I stored the bottle for 17 years, it survived several moves and August 2000 opened it. No, it was not sour, it was a great wine, the greatest i have tried out so far.
I also tried some very nice St.Emilions, in fact this is my preferred region. I was treated with fancy $$ South African and Californian wines, sorry, not my taste, too spectacular. I agree each of them had outstanding properties, but each of them also had outstanding flaws. I prefer Bordeaux, they are balanced, and below US$40 a bottle, i do not even feel cheated, i feel i get an appropriate return for my money. I never was disappointed with a Bordeaux, whatever Cru it was.

Not so with malt whiskies, some taste like medicine, phew !! :( . But i have my preferences, the 16 year old Lagavulin is hard to beat, outstanding and at its price of US$30, it is unbeatable. It has a mild peat note and is very complex yet totally balanced. This whisky is not a spectacular stunner, it is subtle and for the conaisseur.

Then, the complete opposite, a 10 year old Longrow. Rare, expensive. Giving the term "spectacular" a new meaning. Hefty peat note, it literally explodes in the mouth. Having 46% of alcohol.

It's non-peat brother is the Springbanks which i tried in several agings, from 16 to 26 years. No peat note but as hefty as the Longrow. Same alcohol.

A wonderful balanced whisky is the Macallan; it is stored in sherry casks and so it has a stong sherry touch. I tried it out from aging 12 to 25, always was happy with it. I would dare to offer it to a lady new to whisky. But we know that Macallan from James Bond, isn't it? :)

If i am in the local booze with friends and the menu has no Macallan but has a Glenlivet, i am happy, almost as good and also no peat note. But no sherry note either. Just a straight stuff, i would consider the Glenlivet as mainstream.
Single Malt Whisky is considered to be expensive taste. But if i compare the quality of those mentioned above to adequate Congacs and Armagnacs, i arrive at atleast 4 times the price for the brandy. I found me complaining about a slight soapy note in a $250 Cognac. I stick with whisky. If i would have to settle on one of them and price is not an issue, I probably would choose a 21 or 26 year old Springbanks.

I recommend trying those whiskies warm and in a tasting glass with lid, not in a tumbler and certainly not with ice or water.

There exist so-called cask-strength whiskies, having alcohol of more than 56%. These have to be care fully mixed with soft water.
 
Hi dice45,

Sorry to hear your bad experiences with King Alcohol, seems you got your discipline working, good thing. I only drink in the weekend, keeps me and my bank account healthy :)
I also tend to collect as many 375mL bottle of bordeaux as I can find.. I have collect about 50 of them so far...

'Chateau Margaux and a Fijac' ehhhhhh Dammit.. I wish I could say the same.. I haven't been able to drink so excusive ... yet! (only the Classe A St.E being a birthday present)

But......I know Chateau Meyney.. I had the 1990 375mL bottle three times.. It's very very nice indeed and not so expensive. The Later vintages (1993 1995 1996 1997 yes :) ) were not as impressive as the 1990..

I can recommend one more.. I just forgot the name .. but it's a chateau of the famous Rothschild familie .. they own 3 cru classes.. the least expensive chateau from 1992 was only 33 dutch guldens (about 16$ ) .. It was not very good, '92 being a weak vintage.. but for the price it was excelent..

malt wisky ... hmmmmm.. I would love to try some time but .. were would I start... and what does one eat with it .. english chease??
 
Hi guys

I think I started the "wrong" thread on this forum, something I didn't really mean to do, but so what!
Red wine goes very well with DIY audio and especially when listening to your favourite piece of music on your beloved equipment, or when testing and comparing something with friends.
Anyway, come Down Under and taste some of the most beautiful (and very musical too) Reds ever produced on this Earth.
As I said I am into analogue and wine is very analogue, very humane.

Cheers

Stani
 
To All of You

Tim,
You are building a monster amplifier
:)

Bernhard,
Hello, it's nice to heard that your grand ma have a telenfunken.
My telefunken speaker was belong to my grand pa, i take it
from his telefunken radio that was used by my grand pa for
listening a music in his favorite MW station. and yes you're
right i use my speaker in open baffle design, just like the
original design. wine?? how about eXtra Ordinary?
I would like to know about your amplifier,
so tell me about your amps bernhard? :)

Stan, and Thijs
Hello, nice to meet you, and please tell me about your amplifier
:)


audio that build by your self,
and a bordeaux 1964 that you bought from your local store
:D
 
Thijs,





never got the icy touch of king Alcohol on my own shoulder, i am a classic "co-addict" which is a technical term for those having addicts among familiy and friends and unable to do what ought to be done: get rif of 'em. Today, i never would help an addict anymore until he comes to me, asking me unforced "help me get rid of the stuff and i already bought the handcuffs and here they are." Helping alcohol addicts I have tried to often and failed.





Malt whisky, what does one eat to it? Well, i would suggest the same as with Bordeaux, an excellent white wheat bread. Like the french do. Anything else spoils the gorgeous taste.





Pier,

Hello, it's nice to heard that your grand ma have a telenfunken.


Misunderstanding :) "Grandma radio" is a common German term for old tube radios (open baffle, wood case) dunno what my grandma owned.

I would like to know about your amplifier, so tell me about your amps bernhard?


My power amp is a thoroughly differential pushpull amp. But as it is still in the design phase, i hesitate to tell details.

What is clear already: the amp willbe zero loop feedback and

the output stage is a differential pair of AD1 (with a constant current source in the cathode) driving a Tango XE-45-5.

My initial idea was based on the need to have three stages and to tuck two XO networks between the stages. System 1 of both E80CC was meant to form together a choke-loaded differential pair with CCS, each system 2 was meant to be a cathode follower used differentially, also with CCS as load. Beauty of this is that amplifying tube matching is easy, cathode follower tube matching is unneccessary anyway.



But with the Fertin, I need only one XO network now, so i might try out interstage transformer coupling and for this i would go with another tube choice. My preferred input tube would be a #56 and my preferred driver tube would be the 71A; the interstage trannie would be a Lundahl LL1635. Negotiable in this concept is the input tube; the #56 has comparatively high plate resistance and with transformer coupling, matching of the input's differential pair is not that critical so i may settle on a 5687, better on a 6900 althoug they have a bit of too much amplification.



Info preliminary; as soon as i have something running, i post a schematic.



I listened to several amplifiers having driver (small) power tubes as driver with atleast the sonic reputation as the output tube. Stunning amps, each of them, particularly in the long-term listenability and seducability and absence of listening fatigue. Sakuma-san is right, the driver tube is atleast as important as the output tube.

The AD1 is beyond any questioning, and so is the 71A.
 
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