Hello everyone,
I am considering building an ANK 300B SET amplifier, but I am debated if I should use the ANK quad c-core OPTs or if I should look for something better, without breaking the bank (The Monolith S9, for instance, on the paper look great).
Has anyone experience comparing the ANK OPTs with other OPTs?
I am considering building an ANK 300B SET amplifier, but I am debated if I should use the ANK quad c-core OPTs or if I should look for something better, without breaking the bank (The Monolith S9, for instance, on the paper look great).
Has anyone experience comparing the ANK OPTs with other OPTs?
One of the best se with 300B is AN Kit one
In my opinion
Then if you think only around OT but not with the quality of 300B and the driver stage you are doing the 50% of the job
And the standard OT by AN are fine
Walter
In my opinion
Then if you think only around OT but not with the quality of 300B and the driver stage you are doing the 50% of the job
And the standard OT by AN are fine
Walter
This ANK seems like a vanilla 300b with single 6SN7 driver and autobias like the sun audio and the like and the sonic results are going to be rather predictable. Of course I could only tell from looking at pictures but I am pretty sure my prediction are close enough.
That being said, the starting price and the convenience of the complete kit can be appealing to the first timer.
I would not expect the sonics of a Bartola Valves with Tamura, Hashimoto or the best Lundhals OPT.
That being said, the starting price and the convenience of the complete kit can be appealing to the first timer.
I would not expect the sonics of a Bartola Valves with Tamura, Hashimoto or the best Lundhals OPT.
Because the final results is the addition of different things but OT mainly
There are a lot of good circuit for 300B but a good OT ( verified by test) is not so easy to find
The AN for kits has a long experienced about it
The C cores are very good but the standard type are a reasonable choice
Personally I prefer the p-p of 300B
Walter
Only because you never had them your system -those vanillas. All those rich idiots are spending $50k on a vanilla amp instead employing Bartola to build them something much better for $1k..
You assume alot. 😉 Plenty of reports out there of vanilla 300b sounding muddy, soft and rolled off, and people spending fortunes chasing the tube rolling dragon with dubious outcomes.
I was setting pretty realistic expectations of such design based on my experience with 300b and the degree to which driver stage and very small details can affect the sound in such amps.
Not very many people build 300b to begin with and I don't how you'd build ANY 300b with decent OPT for 1k, but the $50k figure is also at the edge of ridiculous.
I was setting pretty realistic expectations of such design based on my experience with 300b and the degree to which driver stage and very small details can affect the sound in such amps.
Not very many people build 300b to begin with and I don't how you'd build ANY 300b with decent OPT for 1k, but the $50k figure is also at the edge of ridiculous.
I don't care for reports of people building circuits. I had AN amps and they are anything but soft and rolled off. Most elaborate 300B circuits with "strong" driver sound unrefined and plain vanilla because technical correctness is just a start. Fortunately DIY circuits don't have to compete on the market so there is always an appeal of "kicking the ar...se of commercial units on cheap " It rarely happens. Also because DIY folk is too cheap to spend any money and have a valid reference point. It goes across the boards of components from sources to speakers.
300b amps are an expensive way to get 8watts at 5 to 10% distortion and the wont drive modern low sensitivity speakers . Horns yes, open baffle speakers, probably not. A japanese audio expert, designed a se 300b in glass audio.had el34 triode wired as driver,tango nc20 as it and we output tube plus xe 5k tango opt transformer. Sound probably very good, cost high, so take your pick.
@limono
You seem to care enough to rant here, and half of the stuff you say is nonsense. I am talking about reports on commercial amps. I get you don't like things that are well designed and measure right because you once had AN(K?) and you stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Apparently Audio Note (the real one) can make nice sounding amps, who knew? However, I listen to them every year and they don't stand out as 'OMG-must buy'. I would rate them lower that my diy 300b amp. You also assume that the people that designed and build modern 300b designs didn't listen to them, have no terms of comparison, and have used crappy OPT and components. Anyway, I said everything I wanted to say on the topic.
You seem to care enough to rant here, and half of the stuff you say is nonsense. I am talking about reports on commercial amps. I get you don't like things that are well designed and measure right because you once had AN(K?) and you stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. Apparently Audio Note (the real one) can make nice sounding amps, who knew? However, I listen to them every year and they don't stand out as 'OMG-must buy'. I would rate them lower that my diy 300b amp. You also assume that the people that designed and build modern 300b designs didn't listen to them, have no terms of comparison, and have used crappy OPT and components. Anyway, I said everything I wanted to say on the topic.
You listen every year on a show how can you tell ? You can rate your DIY amp as high as you want. It's your right. I cloned few amps with very good components and none come close to the real thing. It was you who dismissed 6SN7 plain vanilla circuit. Fact that it is simple and millions of amps are employing it does not make it plain vanilla per se. It is good enough to use Silver trans costing more than a car in it. Once I hear DIY setup which performs on elevated level I will be happy to report. So far it didn't happen after 25 years of search.
@michael
my amp has 3% at full power and I would not use with anything but full range or horns but it is the best amp I have had up to from 65-85dB. The detail during night listening when you train your ears to the low volume is very unique. Having said that there is a sharp point at which the amp runs out of juice and will let your ears know to turn the volume down.
my amp has 3% at full power and I would not use with anything but full range or horns but it is the best amp I have had up to from 65-85dB. The detail during night listening when you train your ears to the low volume is very unique. Having said that there is a sharp point at which the amp runs out of juice and will let your ears know to turn the volume down.
Many in the US, or at least in the silicon valley where I live, could afford going to a hifi shop and leave with a $50k amplifier. But to me that's not as fun and rewarding as building your own amplifier.
I built EL34 and 6V6 PP amplifiers before, and I found it fun and rewarding. To my ears they sound very well, and better than some amps I heard playing at hifi shows.
Now I am looking to build a 300B SET amplifier, and I am not looking to go cheap on it.
Regarding the ANK 300B being vanilla.. yeah the circuit looks quite vanilla, but that doesn't not answer the question "does it sound good?"
And if anyone has any suggestions for better sounding DIY 300B amplifiers, please share them 🙂
I built EL34 and 6V6 PP amplifiers before, and I found it fun and rewarding. To my ears they sound very well, and better than some amps I heard playing at hifi shows.
Now I am looking to build a 300B SET amplifier, and I am not looking to go cheap on it.
Regarding the ANK 300B being vanilla.. yeah the circuit looks quite vanilla, but that doesn't not answer the question "does it sound good?"
And if anyone has any suggestions for better sounding DIY 300B amplifiers, please share them 🙂
If you have an audio club near you; or a lot of friends in your area, have them set up a double blindfold tests for different 300B amplifiers.
Easier said than done, I know.
I once brought one of my tube amplifiers to a local high end stereo store; and listened to my amp on a set of demo speakers.
I brought the demo speakers home for a weekend (Sunday & Monday the store closure days) and listened.
Next I brought home a brand new set of those speakers in a sealed box.
One audio club brought a Dyna ST70 to a stereo store for a listening shootout.
It had a 10 minute soldering section modification (Ultra Linear to Triode Wired?).
It ran circles around the stores Whiz-Bang best solid state amplifier.
Needless to say, the audio club was not invited back.
Fun In Audio!
Easier said than done, I know.
I once brought one of my tube amplifiers to a local high end stereo store; and listened to my amp on a set of demo speakers.
I brought the demo speakers home for a weekend (Sunday & Monday the store closure days) and listened.
Next I brought home a brand new set of those speakers in a sealed box.
One audio club brought a Dyna ST70 to a stereo store for a listening shootout.
It had a 10 minute soldering section modification (Ultra Linear to Triode Wired?).
It ran circles around the stores Whiz-Bang best solid state amplifier.
Needless to say, the audio club was not invited back.
Fun In Audio!
To answer your question: no. I think you can do better. Particularly, if you already have experience with other tube amps it really makes sense to try to optimize and customize and not go with a run of the mill kit. If you want the best results you need to plonk down the money for good iron that will likely need custom enclosure.
marcomariutto,
A question to determine what you might enjoy, what model or multiple model types of loudspeakers do you have?
Even if your speakers are not high efficiency, you may find that a lot of models of 300B single ended amplifiers can give you hours of pleasurable listening.
If you are not a hard rock fan who wants the neighbors to pound on your walls, or a fan of 32 foot pipe pipe organs, or have an auditorium for listening to 300B amplifiers . . .
You will find something to like about listening to the 300B SE amplifiers on your loudspeakers.
I like what grataku said in his Post # 12: "The detail during night listening when you train your ears to the low volume is very unique."
Have fun deciding on an amplifier circuit, building, and listening!
A question to determine what you might enjoy, what model or multiple model types of loudspeakers do you have?
Even if your speakers are not high efficiency, you may find that a lot of models of 300B single ended amplifiers can give you hours of pleasurable listening.
If you are not a hard rock fan who wants the neighbors to pound on your walls, or a fan of 32 foot pipe pipe organs, or have an auditorium for listening to 300B amplifiers . . .
You will find something to like about listening to the 300B SE amplifiers on your loudspeakers.
I like what grataku said in his Post # 12: "The detail during night listening when you train your ears to the low volume is very unique."
Have fun deciding on an amplifier circuit, building, and listening!
When I was building my first tube-based component, I decided to start with the ANK 300B P-SET C-Core Interstage monoblocks. I ended up making a lot of modifications - mostly to the power supply, filament regulators, etc. and ended up building my own chassis to provide a bit more space, move the connections to the back, etc. But I am using the ANK transformers.
I'm using these amps to drive fairly efficient speakers (~98db/w) with separately powered woofers, so the 300B amps are only used for ~180Hz on up. I'm pretty pleased with the way they sound - they replaced a pair of Pass XA60.8 monoblocks. I haven't compared them with other tube amps in my system (yet), but I think the ANK kits are a good place to start if you are looking for a fairly nice design that is easy to build.
I'm using these amps to drive fairly efficient speakers (~98db/w) with separately powered woofers, so the 300B amps are only used for ~180Hz on up. I'm pretty pleased with the way they sound - they replaced a pair of Pass XA60.8 monoblocks. I haven't compared them with other tube amps in my system (yet), but I think the ANK kits are a good place to start if you are looking for a fairly nice design that is easy to build.
I built Reichert 6SN7 with all the best bits but OPTs which I ordered from Hong Kong guru because I thought AN opts were ridiculously expensive and I'm not going to support " thieves " - common attitude here. The opts were measured and my friend said he never saw Iron measuring so good. Biffliar windings on Japanese core. I was proud. Local Audio store had faulty set of plain vanilla AN Quests- basic model and M1 their cheapest preamp actually based on Kondo M7 with 12au7 instead of 12ay7.
I bought the set and it was an easy fix.
Quests blew my amps off the water in all regards-Scale , dynamics, tone, you name it. Since then I had amps from Art Audio , Viva , Sophia Electric , Wavac. Yamamoto , Don Garber. I will take AN amp , plain vanilla over all of them on monkey box speakers. With horns the equation changes and Grataku may have a point.
What speaker that amp will have to drive ?
Ps. P.Q may be biased ( for obvious reasons ) but I heard that in his opinion those funky ANK transformers are pretty atrocious..
I bought the set and it was an easy fix.
Quests blew my amps off the water in all regards-Scale , dynamics, tone, you name it. Since then I had amps from Art Audio , Viva , Sophia Electric , Wavac. Yamamoto , Don Garber. I will take AN amp , plain vanilla over all of them on monkey box speakers. With horns the equation changes and Grataku may have a point.
What speaker that amp will have to drive ?
Ps. P.Q may be biased ( for obvious reasons ) but I heard that in his opinion those funky ANK transformers are pretty atrocious..
@6A3sUMMER @limono that's a very good question.
Currently my main set up is composed by a couple of parallel PP EL34 monoblocks, that I build a couple years ago, and a couple of VMPS RM-40 speakers, and can shake the walls of the room.
As I am getting older, I have been appreciating more 'calm' music which includes mostly vocals and jazz, hence my interest in building a DHT SET amplifier.
Initially the SET amplifier would be driving a couple of Frugal Horns, but those would eventually leave and make room for some higher sensitivity speakers (most likely based on Lowther drivers but this is still TBD).
This 300B PSE project with IT from Andrea Ciuffoli looks very interesting, and I should be able to stay below $4K for a couple of monoblocks, expecially if I am able to source some of the irons from in the used market
Currently my main set up is composed by a couple of parallel PP EL34 monoblocks, that I build a couple years ago, and a couple of VMPS RM-40 speakers, and can shake the walls of the room.
As I am getting older, I have been appreciating more 'calm' music which includes mostly vocals and jazz, hence my interest in building a DHT SET amplifier.
Initially the SET amplifier would be driving a couple of Frugal Horns, but those would eventually leave and make room for some higher sensitivity speakers (most likely based on Lowther drivers but this is still TBD).
This 300B PSE project with IT from Andrea Ciuffoli looks very interesting, and I should be able to stay below $4K for a couple of monoblocks, expecially if I am able to source some of the irons from in the used market
@marcomariutto
I arrived to the high eff speakers/low power amp combo not even knowing that I needed it. I definitely thing the low volume listening was a much appreciated bonus.
Jaytor described the situation I was referring to very well. He bought the kit and ended up modifying the whole thing to the point he got a different amp altogether. I was trying to suggest you might want to avoid doing that. 🙂
I arrived to the high eff speakers/low power amp combo not even knowing that I needed it. I definitely thing the low volume listening was a much appreciated bonus.
Jaytor described the situation I was referring to very well. He bought the kit and ended up modifying the whole thing to the point he got a different amp altogether. I was trying to suggest you might want to avoid doing that. 🙂