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    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
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Unusual amps..

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#21
GloBug said:
Take a peek at the old Magnavox schematics.
He was a student Lance Cochran, who primarily sold rehashed Magnavox on eBay.

Maybe try contacting him at his Website. Hard to say if he is interested in sharing details or not. EMPIRE ELECTRON AMPLIFIERS Vacuum Tube Amplifiers by Steve White
Click to expand...

Where do I start...
Well, I'm flattered that you are all taking time out of your day to talk about me and my work. I'm not here to defend my amplifiers, as my sales and customer feedback located at the bottom of the page on my website speaks for itself. No, I'm not American, I'm Canadian. I don't fish, I'm a bodybuilder and have been for 30 years. Lance Cochrane, who is my teacher is a scratch builder like myself, and isn't a "rehasher" of old Magnavox units. We build and tune the entire amplifier by hand, including the circuit. Lance has spent more than 40 years perfecting his circuit and his students continue the R&D. Maybe before you trash my work, you should find someone who has one of my amps and have a listen to it, or better yet, read the comments my customers have left on my website. I think you'll be eating your negative comments! Oh, and while I'm here, I'd like to say thanks to GloBug for having an open mind, and not acting like an old jealous hen in a hen house like the rest of you. I will agree with you all about one thing though, you'll never see or hear anything like what I build anywhere else, and that I am very proud of.

Steve White
Empire Electron Amplifiers
 
#23
While not trying to add my **** to this 'contest'....sorry but the day-glo colors while popular with the I-pod set.....it really doesn't work with the grown-up crowd.
Maybe your reaching out to the un-reachable younger type market, I dunno.
While some of us are pondering mega-exotic woods for our bases, debating chassis materials endlessly..........................Why didn't I think of Krylon rattle-can??? Seriously...............whatever works I suppose.........or rather , whatever sells!

___________________________________________________Rick..............
 
#25
That Japanese web-site is very revealing as to the artistic renderings......It would seem they seem obsessed with labels....The cap values, voltage, capacitance, brand are prominently displayed for all to see. The labels for the transformers are also "on display"..............as if most who look at this amp.........know what those 'funny numbers' mean. Pure posturing, chest thumping........all in all very industrial, exposed HV, exposed screws & clamps............I suppose they are silver plated too ......kinda like a mega priced Ham Shack.

__________________________________________________Rick............
 
#26
Ok, so he builds amps, like pentodes, likes lots of paint, mirror and bright colors?

Probably as good a a whole lot of other amps that are out there and people make.
I've seen amps that are much more "unusual" looking...

To my untrained eye, looks like some have grown up on old Allen Organ Co. amp chassis, but can't be sure.

I'd want my underside to be done a bit differently, but that doesn't make the amp sound better in most cases.

This isn't my style of amp building, but so what?

Obviously a lot of pride and time and effort went into these creations.
Why knock it?

_-_-bear
 
#27
When I saw the initial post here yesterday, I figured it was really a plug to sell amps (look at things all dressed up is fine, but we want to see what's underneath too... where are the schematics?). I don't know about colorful amps being worth piles of cash (maybe it's time for me to take up painting?), but I did get a chuckle out of the picture. Amps with muscle give you muscle! Gotta like that. Just add one with a wonder woman and everybody will be happy. I guess some have the marketing down and are here for more designs. The mentor mentioned got me curious, but doesn't seem to be in the book and is apparently close by near the land of Polywogs (Cal Poly). Take a picture of an amp up at Hearst Castle with the pool and ancient Greek looking works in the background. So many tubes and so few transformers, what is a guy to do?
 
#32
eeamps said:
I use high quality marine paint, painted by a professional painter in a proper paint facility. These are very expensive and complex paint jobs used on my amps.

Steve White
E E AMPS
Click to expand...

Suggest you might want to work on ur photographs?

To my untrained eyes they look like Rustoleum or Krylon jobs... sorry to report that.

Btw, the plate cap on the 807 was to improve mechanical reliability and increase the peak current that could be pulled thanks to the heavy wire out of the top of the envelope.

I have seen amps that put 200watts out of 4 x 807! Pushes the limits slightly, but not that much.

The 807 is a nice HF RF output tube that was used extensively in WWII in the famous "Command Set" transmitters. As is the 1625.

In RF service, plate modulated, the peak voltage on the plates exceeds the B+ by 100% and sometimes more... these 807s are able to be somewhat "abused".

_-_-bear



PS. I am unaware of any "bad" runs of post WWII 807s... doesn't mean it didn't happen, but in ham radio circles I have never heard it mentioned.
 
#33
eeamps said:
I use high quality marine paint, painted by a professional painter in a proper paint facility. These are very expensive and complex paint jobs used on my amps.

Steve White
E E AMPS
Click to expand...

I guess the question I would have is: what would happen to that paint job if you had to change a socket or a transformer? It would ruin the job as the screw/bolt heads are painted over. I guess you may not see that as a problem.

It is just my personal opinion, so take it or leave it as you will, but painting over the bolt heads and the entire transformer kind of looks like sending your car in for a re-spray and they paint over everything, the tires, the trim, the chrome etc. I would have thought that your amps would look better if you painted the chassis prior to final assembly and maybe matched the transformer end-bells without painting the laminations.

Just my personal opinion and sense of aesthetic though. If you and your customers like them as you are doing, who am I to say...

Cheers
 
#34
What I see, is someone who has a lot more "presentation" and the communications skills to push the valve amp as a "cool" product to a wider audience. Not one word about circuits, but can make a "wow" paintjob. Who cares about schematics, when the customer sees the product among 2364876 similar (boring) looking products and goes "god i have to have it". So the aesthetic similarity with boutique guitar amps is working for the intended purpose.

He's the cool kid between us nerds, and should be applauded for that. I could not sell an amp to save my life.
 
#36
Those interested in 807's might find it interesting that some of the Gates (now Harris corp) A.M. broadcast transmitters from the 50's used 807 for both the r.f. driver, and the push-pull audio input stage and cathode follower feeding 833A in class AB2. Thinking the supply of 807's would dry up, audio driver boards were sold that used 6BG6Gs (or other shapes). Those were a popular horizontal (line amp) output tube in black and white television sets the late 40's and early 50's. Many of those transmitter were still in use many years later (I saw a couple still on the air in the 90's) and people that had converted generally had put the 807 version boards back in. It's the plate caps that are on the top, not grid caps. And the reason for that isn't not being able to handle the plate voltage at the base, but to provide better isolation between grid and plate circuits in radio frequency applications. Television sweep tubes do encounter far higher peak plate voltages that do require extra space around the pin at the base. That is seen in tubes like the 6AU5 and 6AV5, the later being much like a 6DQ6 but bottom fed. Paint jobs and things that people like are fine, I just can't see any justification for the things being so incredibly expensive. It seems like it is taking advantage of somewhat ignorant buyers with too much money in their pockets. The first thing I thought of when I saw them were the look alike colored plastic computers that HP or somebody came out with after the early iMacs became popular. I know someone that bought one thinking it'd be reliable and do all those fun things a neighbor was doing on the Mac, but quickly ended up really unhappy struggling with the same old malware and other issues they thought they'd left behind. If the colorful amps are well designed and sound great too, I'd like them. But if they're just mostly copies of 50's designs only with much inferior transformers I'm not impressed. Although I like the look and function of 807's myself, I think having anodes where children (and some adults) can get to them is just too dangerous. I think it's a real waste to run 807's at 350 Volts. That line made me think he was using any old power transformer he found. The link provided certainly didn't inspire any confidence in insightful design, but maybe with the work of the other guy behind the scenes they're still good in spite of that. If so, the tech guy should proofread what the marketing guy writes. I really do admire that ability to get out there and sell something eye catching... and the muscles too, and will admit to being a bit envious of both.
 
#39
Ricco, take a deep breath, hit the return button now and again.
I honestly could not get through your post.:crazy:

As far as price is concerned these things are hand made in Canada with vintage components. If you compare the sound to more expensive amps you will see they are a value. Have you even looked at the amps on that website?

The thing is it's the Sound that sells these amps, the paint being secondary and fun. (my opinion) Besides, aren't you guys always squacking about "Wife appeal factor"?

I'm a form follows function kinda guy. I think it's funny that you are judging form without hearing function.
Lance Cochrane helped me build my amp. Then I got on these forums to tinker, after all got to see what else is out there right? I putt a screen grid on it, huge capacitance, played with couplers, then to triode-strapped etc, etc, etc.
The thing is I now realize the amp sounded best when I first built it, the way Lance showed me. Now I know. lol

There has not been a thing painted in the history of mankind that everyone can agree on. lol.
Monochrome (painting mostly everything the same colour) looks more sport, in fact you pay more for a monochrome paint scheme on a new car. 😉

I suppose the hardware could detract from the finish if it was not all similar material. I myself like Stainless Steel, however if it proved difficult to get all SS hardware, I too paint over screws. It does not look that bad.
I painted the transformer bolts on my amp and it looks fine. I used SS everywhere else.

I have to admit I used Steve White's amps as an inspiration for my build, don't tell anybody. The only difference is my favorite finish is stealth black polyeurea.
 

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