It's half past three in the morning here and I'm in my hobby room, enjoying some very non audiophile-approved music on my recently finished transmitter triode DHT SET.
To produce 2*5 quite decent sounding watts I've bought Soviet made input tubes from Ukraine and French driver tubes. The output tubes were made in USA some 80 years ago by Taylor and imported, via eBay, to Sweden by me, one by one in unknown condition and at horrible shipping costs.
The mains transformer, OPTs and driver stage cathode chokes were bought from Italy, then there are several other smaller transformers and chokes from different manufacturers.
In the context of DHT SETs this is a budget amp, still I could easily have bought a decently functioning car for the same money.
Looking at only the specs, the little critter between my thumb and index finger in the picture eats this amp for breakfast at perhaps 1/1000th of the cost.
This is the Tube forum so I can't be the only one with this...perverted mindset.
Some may say tubes sound better. Ok, except that they don't, not necessarily. Properly designed SS amps can sound just as good as any tube amp.
My theory boils down to one thing: The glow. Inherited memories cavemen staring into camp fires or something, I don't know.
End of rant, feel free to share your opinions!
To produce 2*5 quite decent sounding watts I've bought Soviet made input tubes from Ukraine and French driver tubes. The output tubes were made in USA some 80 years ago by Taylor and imported, via eBay, to Sweden by me, one by one in unknown condition and at horrible shipping costs.
The mains transformer, OPTs and driver stage cathode chokes were bought from Italy, then there are several other smaller transformers and chokes from different manufacturers.
In the context of DHT SETs this is a budget amp, still I could easily have bought a decently functioning car for the same money.
Looking at only the specs, the little critter between my thumb and index finger in the picture eats this amp for breakfast at perhaps 1/1000th of the cost.
This is the Tube forum so I can't be the only one with this...perverted mindset.
Some may say tubes sound better. Ok, except that they don't, not necessarily. Properly designed SS amps can sound just as good as any tube amp.
My theory boils down to one thing: The glow. Inherited memories cavemen staring into camp fires or something, I don't know.
End of rant, feel free to share your opinions!
I've been doing this hobby for about 4 years, entered into it as I near retirement and remember the fun as a kid taking apart old TV sets I found on garbage day. So I want to do it again, but with a brain this time. In these last 4 years I learned that DIY has nothing to do with "saving money", that's just what everybody thinks before they start doing it. It's crazy the parts and tubes I've accumulated on the thought of using it for this or that. Some pour money into their boats, or cars, or eating out every day, or a big house. There is a lure to making audio stuff you don't get by just buying it, if you like making things. I just started designing / making some open baffle speakers on top of all the tube stuff, my metal shop and wood shop. I have no clue who will get all this stuff when I die, but every day I find the investment more satisfying, because I know my wife, kids and everything else is not being shortchanged by my indulgence.
details please, details! I spend more than my share of past midnights wiring stuff or better, gluing speakers cabinets.
Just kidding, I'll show the schematic as soon as I've drawn it, and post better pictures when I have taken some.
The answer is D (all of the above).
I think the best answer I have heard is that it is easier to screw up an SS amp than it is to screw up a tube amp.
I think the best answer I have heard is that it is easier to screw up an SS amp than it is to screw up a tube amp.
Gee, I was trained and apprenticed on tubes. Then trained in solid state and learn that in uni. Then trained at distributors and practicing for nearly 50 years.
You know what? Tubes are fun. They can sound pretty good (some awful). Same for solid state. My running systems are all solid state. Why? Cost of running tubes and maintenance, plus I like to crank the heck out of the system I would need a CJ Premier One in the main system, that's 12 x KT88. I ain't paying to retube that monster.
Designed and build both technologies, enjoy both. Have at it!
You know what? Tubes are fun. They can sound pretty good (some awful). Same for solid state. My running systems are all solid state. Why? Cost of running tubes and maintenance, plus I like to crank the heck out of the system I would need a CJ Premier One in the main system, that's 12 x KT88. I ain't paying to retube that monster.
Designed and build both technologies, enjoy both. Have at it!
I agree to this. SS amps can sound anything from horrible to perfectly fine, tube amps usually have some qualities even when built with with the cheapest possible parts. One theory here is that the simplest, cheapest SS designs are usually PP class AB circuits that rely on heavy negative feedback to function while the simplest, cheapest tube amps usually are SE class A circuits with little or no feedback.
That has become an increasingly large factor for me too over the years. My favorite is still the 808 but these small Taylors don't leave much to wish for either.
I have some 8025s that I'm looking forward to build something with one day, really fugly things with four side caps and glowing plates.
Definitely! I've built a lot of SS stuff throught over the years, some of it even sounded good and one or two amps (Hiraga and Pass) even plays music now and then. But when it comes to designing and building stuff for fun, tubes are the winners.
An LM1875 will never replace the glow of a mesh plate 300B in a dark room.
Tom
Tom
Oh, I have a pair of those right behind me on the shelf. Or some kind of fake mesh version at least, the plates are full of tiny holes. A 300B SET will be the next major project, OPTs are on their way from Lundahl and I'm looking for a suitable mains transformer.
It's a hobby; it's not meant to save money. Quite the reverse, a hobby can be defined as something where you spend vast sums of money to no effect anyone else can see. But (and I think this is important) I know people who make steam engines and I'm fairly sure their partners don't use the finished article, whereas SWMBO can switch on the glowing thing and enjoy music. That glow is heart-warming.
SWMBO in my case won't touch my valve setup. It only has 3 on-off switches but it looks like something out of Star Wars and doesn't resemble anything she can associate with the usual small black box amplifier. I don't know whether to try systematic desensitisation or flooding.....
Then there is the element of simplicity, if we compare apples to apples, meaning not using integrated circuits for SS, just caps, resistors and transistors. You can make a 2w amp with a single ECL86+opt, sounding great. Doing the same with SS results in a more complicated circuit.
What was that thing someone had said, and I'm going to paraphrase, "Electrons are much happier flying through vacuum than being shoved through doped silicon."
I am just to finish a 811ASE designed by Fuling.
811A is in the price range of my ekonomy
Compare f.e.x 300 B.
It will be interesting to hear Fulings comments
On the 300B compared to the 6b4g and on the
808.
My next ampbuild Will be a Wolverine,I lnow
Transistors kan sound good to,just look at the M2x..
811A is in the price range of my ekonomy
Compare f.e.x 300 B.
It will be interesting to hear Fulings comments
On the 300B compared to the 6b4g and on the
808.
My next ampbuild Will be a Wolverine,I lnow
Transistors kan sound good to,just look at the M2x..
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lol!
Hi EC.
Yup, it's a hobby all right. But you have to be able to afford keeping it running. It's similar to having an open reel these days. Pancakes run $100 each, plus flanges if you don't re-use them. I sold mine (Tascam BR-20).
Remember, that woman in your life has to allow it as well. Fact of life (and she isn't wrong).
Tube products are fun, I like them. If I win a lottery, maybe I'll consider a 250 wpc tube power amp. At 35 wpc, they fit most needs.
Hi EC.
Yup, it's a hobby all right. But you have to be able to afford keeping it running. It's similar to having an open reel these days. Pancakes run $100 each, plus flanges if you don't re-use them. I sold mine (Tascam BR-20).
Remember, that woman in your life has to allow it as well. Fact of life (and she isn't wrong).
Tube products are fun, I like them. If I win a lottery, maybe I'll consider a 250 wpc tube power amp. At 35 wpc, they fit most needs.
Interests (hobbies) are both expensive, obsessive, and often perplexing to others. Is DIY audio - tubes, ss, speakers, digital front ends - any more expensive, or obsessive than other? Probably not if you know someone who quilts (my wife) or is involved in competitive dog activities (my wife, and myself at one time), restores or customizes cars, collects sports cards and memorabilia, bow hunts, is a musician, etc, etc, etc. At least with my hobby I can relax to music played through my tube amps and speakers at home, in my basement. (And if it's chilly, I've got one of my wife's quilts to keep me warm 😁)