Darling 1626 amp

[rca9449]

Anyone have a Darling 1626 or #45 single ended tube amp that they want to sell - please do let me know. Thanks.

[Sal Brisindi]

I just finished building the Darling amp this past Saturday, here it is...

Regards,
Sal

[HollowState]

Nice work Sal! Good use of a ground buss which is my favorite way. Hard to see in the pix, does the buss connect to the chassis? And if so, where? Thanks.

Victor

[tubelab.com]

I just found some 1626's while cleaning out my warehouse. I may build one of these just for fun. I noticed your choice of OPT's. I tried a pair of them on a 45 amp because they were cheap. The Edcor XSE 15-8-5K for $20 each works far better for $5 more.

I looked at your web site. Cool radio collection. I have a smaller radio collection, but now must reduce the size, so some have found new homes. I gave away my old tube CB sets last weekend. Thats when I found the 1626's.

Dig the TransAm. I still have my 73 Challenger with a few modifications.

[soundbrigade]

Here's my Darling. Got a wooden box in military green that was used for dosimeters (radiation control).



And opened up ....



Finally I will have speakers to match: Sonido SFR144 backloaded horn

[Sal Brisindi]

Thanks for the compliment. I didn't connect the ground bus to the chassis.

George, I did buy a set of Edcor transformers for this amp but I used a smaller chassis 10"x6"x2" and I couldn't fit the audio transformers underneath so I went with the Triode Electronics audio transformers. I am away on business this week but next week I want to put a scope on it with a audio generator to check the frequency response.

I have been on your website many times and checked out the restoration of your Challenger, nice job plus all the great work you did on your tube amplifiers. I finally brought my 75 Trans-Am home after it sat in my garage at my other house in Brooklyn NY for 18 years. You can see how it looks now before restoration at http://www.tuberadios.com/temp/ta.jpg .

The Edcor transformers are a great value for the price, I have to order a few more before the price goes up again. I bought their PP 6.6K 60 watt transformers for either a 6L6 or 6550 tube amp.

Sal

[nafunga]

This is not so much a reply to this thread but an obseravtion (!) I built one of these amps. a few years ago and had been regularly using it until about a year ago when I needed a more powerfull amp. and built a DC coupled 6B4G design. Recently I've built a Full range speaker and decided to see how the DC Darling would work. It works fine! However, I thought I'd best check it over as it had been out of use for some time. What I discovered was a bit of a revelation! Due to an error of construction (mine!) I had doubled the Ia of the 1626's to 50mA each! As they had been running like this for a couple of years with no problems, (No overheating or red anodes!) I wondered if anyone else had run these particular valves like this and what effects they may have noticed? I'm not recommending this mode of operation but am suprised how little effect on their life and performance there appears to be, after all, they are rated at 5W dissipation and 25mA Ia. (Not 50mA and 15W as I'm doing!).

Something to think about!

Regards,

David.

[azazello]

1626 is amazing tube! I will build an ampl. 1625 !!

[jazzbo]

I built one for my daughter over the summer using OPTs and PT from an old Electrohome 6BQ5A SE console. Hooked it up to some Fostex FE168S's. Wow. Makes you wonder why we spend the time we do trying to come up with something better...

Sal, what are the speakers in the pics?

[bloozestringer]

Originally posted by azazello
1626 is amazing tube! I will build an ampl. 1625 !!

Although not a Darling, and you might have typo'd? Here's a 1625 amp that I've heard that was quite nice. Jef would probably email schematics if you're interested.

http://home.att.net/~abraxasaudio/pr.../1625-24a.html

Hearing one of Jef's 1626 Darlings was the reason I decided to build one.

I need to get some OPT's for my Darling project so I can finish it up. Have a 5Y3 rectified LCLCLC PS where all the caps are motor runs going to a 5965 driver.