Not to be a turd (I know that I came here asking for help) but I already said I was doing the skunkie mods to this thing, posted links to her thread and schematics and openly said this thing is junk as it comes and that's a gamble I'm willing to take. So thank you for triple posting and reiterating some of the few things that I do already know. I got it for $300 delivered to my door and for another $150 or in parts and tubes it will hopefully be a decent performer around 5w. In any case I expect I'll get $450 worth of education from it.
It's great you think it's junk, you may very well be right, even after I do the mods but that's not really what I've asked. In your infinite wisdom of what is worthless junk or not, could you recommend a driver/enclosure that might complement this piece of garbage or should I just put it directly in the trash once I receive it?
I gave enclosure recommendation in the post #16.
Please take my opinion not as something negative, but a sincere desire to help you avoid disappointment. I explained reasons why you may be disappointed even after doing modifications.
You can get a lot of crap made in China. And the other end of the spectrum you can get some very good products.
You just have to be careful — just like stuff that is made in (likely) almost any country, althou we probably see (or buy because it is dirt cheap) the former. I have seen some pretty sketchy stuff. And then there is stuff like Denafrips.
Pay your money, take your chances. Those that have come before and played with the stuff and has provided feedback on what you get.
dave
I dunno about Pensil designs but have you considered TABAQ enclosures? A pair is cheap, simple, and works well with most 3-4 inch FR speakers, including Faital.
TS parameters mostly describe driver behavior close to resonance frequencies so that enclosures optimal for bass. can be calculated. TS doesn't tell anything about how a driver will sound. My recommendation comes from my experience with three Markaudio drivers, Pluvia Seven HD, MAOP-7, and MAOP-5. With regard to subjective quality of midrange and highs, I rank these drivers Pluvia Seven << MAOP-7 < MAOP-5. MAOP drivers are far superior to low price Markaudio line, and within MAOP the quality of mids and highs gets better with decreased driver size. Forcing a single driver to reproduce as low as possible bass makes mid-hi performance suffer due to IMD, so to take full advantage of MAOP's strongest feature, it makes sense to leave lows to a dedicated driver.
MAOP-5 and other MA 3" drivers are particularly suitable for a SE tube amp because with their relatively high Qe they don't need amplifier's high damping factor - for sealed enclosure.
I have the Tangbands now (W5-2143 and W3-2141), they have more sensibility and a pretty good tonal balance on the response.
Well the little amp got here a couple days ago. I'll say that it was packaged excellently. I bought it as an "open box" and I couldn't find any evidence of it even being opened so that's nice. I hooked it up to my little Scott speakers and listened to it for a couple hours and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting but it definitely sounded worse than my Scott amplifier. Audible distortion starting around 25% on the volume knob and by 50% it wasn't unbearable but it was really obvious. Highs and lows were rolled off significantly and the sound stage and overall musicality could be best described as "blah."
It was obvious to my ears that this little thing needed a lot of help, but for someone who may be coming from a cheap bluetooth speaker, airpods or a generic sound bar, I can see how they might think this sounds good. As far as all the youtube reviewers who claim to be music enthusiasts or audiophiles saying that this thing sounds great, I wonder how they can live with their lack of integrity.
Had a busy day yesterday but I was able to find time to do the mods. I was taking my time and double checking everything and it took right around 3 hours. I opted to keep the 6N2J preamp tubes at least for now and am still using the supplied EL34's. I haven't ordered the 5AR4 rectifier yet either, so I'm leaving some B+ voltage on the table, 10-15v apparently.
Even with the suboptimal tubes, the difference is enormous. The output at any knob position is greatly increased and the very noticeable distortion is gone as best as I can tell. My girlfriend went to bed before I finished modding so I haven't put its feet to the fire yet but I'll get to that later today. I did spend an hour or so doing some near field listening and it just sounds great. The sound stage is very open and immersive. The frequency response is much improved, though still a little bright for my tastes. I neglected to order an assortment of values for the schade resistor but I expect that tuning that value should get me where I'm trying to go.
Still not sure what I'm gonna do for drivers but I'll figure it out. I'd still prefer full range but I'm toying with the idea of adding a sub out to this amp but we'll see.
It was obvious to my ears that this little thing needed a lot of help, but for someone who may be coming from a cheap bluetooth speaker, airpods or a generic sound bar, I can see how they might think this sounds good. As far as all the youtube reviewers who claim to be music enthusiasts or audiophiles saying that this thing sounds great, I wonder how they can live with their lack of integrity.
Had a busy day yesterday but I was able to find time to do the mods. I was taking my time and double checking everything and it took right around 3 hours. I opted to keep the 6N2J preamp tubes at least for now and am still using the supplied EL34's. I haven't ordered the 5AR4 rectifier yet either, so I'm leaving some B+ voltage on the table, 10-15v apparently.
Even with the suboptimal tubes, the difference is enormous. The output at any knob position is greatly increased and the very noticeable distortion is gone as best as I can tell. My girlfriend went to bed before I finished modding so I haven't put its feet to the fire yet but I'll get to that later today. I did spend an hour or so doing some near field listening and it just sounds great. The sound stage is very open and immersive. The frequency response is much improved, though still a little bright for my tastes. I neglected to order an assortment of values for the schade resistor but I expect that tuning that value should get me where I'm trying to go.
Still not sure what I'm gonna do for drivers but I'll figure it out. I'd still prefer full range but I'm toying with the idea of adding a sub out to this amp but we'll see.
Had some time to put it through its paces listening to source material that I know very well. Inflation by Whitest Boy Alive is one I use a lot, it sounded very good with a frequency response that felt very similar to how I normally run the Scott (bass and treble knobs around 1 'oclock to get just a little more extension high and low). The highs need to be tamed a little, certainly would with drivers that have better high frequency response, but they're not what I would call "shouty." While a little forward for my tastes, the highs do have great clarity and the sound stage is definitely more open than the Scott. The bass response was very similar to the Scott, the cabinets and speakers being the limiting factor I'm sure, but it was tight, dynamic and punchy in the range it reproduces well, whereas the Scott feels slightly flat by comparison.
DVNO by Justice sounded surprisingly great, the clarity in the upper register definitely helping, but it handled all the sub bass much better than I would have guessed. Prayers for Rain by The Cure fell flat on its face for some reason but IME its a very difficult song to reproduce well. Riders on the Storm by The Doors felt flat in the bassline but fared better than Prayers for Rain.
Entertainment by Gang of Four predictably sounded fantastic. I play bass and the growl and overdrive on the bass on Ether sounded as good as I've heard out of anything that's not my ampeg going through dual 15s. My hunch is the attack has a little something something extra but I'm not certain yet. The clarity in the upper range and better imaging made everything Andy Gill was doing on guitar take on an extra dimension. Speaking in Tongues by Talking Heads wasn't quite as transcendental but sounded very good and had some stand out moments. The kick drum and bassline on Slippery People sounding exceptionally good. David Byrne's vocals sounded great everywhere but that's no surprise. I put on Remain in Light next and the intro to Born Under Punches gave me goosebumps and made my hair stand up with the rest of the album sounding just as good.
Noticing a trend of vocals sounding very good I put on Carol of the Bells, and just, damn, its good. The brass in Holst's The Planets about blew my head off.
My Scott has a little hum/noise but even if I were to remove that from the equation, the A10 now sounds better and just has a little “Je ne sais quoi” that the Scott does not. The soundstage is a little more open and airy, It's got some punchiness down low and some shimmer or sparkle you could say up top that the Scott does not. I'm hearing some small things I've only typically heard with decent headphones, more so in the upper register but I'm pretty sure the cabs are limiting things down low more so than the amplifier. Overall, it was worth the price of admission just for how well it plays Entertainment and Remain in Light, the rest is gravy.
SSER2, I think you may have nailed it suggesting sealed cabs and a separate driver for support down low. I don't have any ported cabs to play with now but my gut tells me things might get flabby going that route. I'm going to see if I can borrow anything with ports from one of my friends just to see, but with this thing excelling at being tight and punchy, might as well stick to that in my mind.
DVNO by Justice sounded surprisingly great, the clarity in the upper register definitely helping, but it handled all the sub bass much better than I would have guessed. Prayers for Rain by The Cure fell flat on its face for some reason but IME its a very difficult song to reproduce well. Riders on the Storm by The Doors felt flat in the bassline but fared better than Prayers for Rain.
Entertainment by Gang of Four predictably sounded fantastic. I play bass and the growl and overdrive on the bass on Ether sounded as good as I've heard out of anything that's not my ampeg going through dual 15s. My hunch is the attack has a little something something extra but I'm not certain yet. The clarity in the upper range and better imaging made everything Andy Gill was doing on guitar take on an extra dimension. Speaking in Tongues by Talking Heads wasn't quite as transcendental but sounded very good and had some stand out moments. The kick drum and bassline on Slippery People sounding exceptionally good. David Byrne's vocals sounded great everywhere but that's no surprise. I put on Remain in Light next and the intro to Born Under Punches gave me goosebumps and made my hair stand up with the rest of the album sounding just as good.
Noticing a trend of vocals sounding very good I put on Carol of the Bells, and just, damn, its good. The brass in Holst's The Planets about blew my head off.
My Scott has a little hum/noise but even if I were to remove that from the equation, the A10 now sounds better and just has a little “Je ne sais quoi” that the Scott does not. The soundstage is a little more open and airy, It's got some punchiness down low and some shimmer or sparkle you could say up top that the Scott does not. I'm hearing some small things I've only typically heard with decent headphones, more so in the upper register but I'm pretty sure the cabs are limiting things down low more so than the amplifier. Overall, it was worth the price of admission just for how well it plays Entertainment and Remain in Light, the rest is gravy.
SSER2, I think you may have nailed it suggesting sealed cabs and a separate driver for support down low. I don't have any ported cabs to play with now but my gut tells me things might get flabby going that route. I'm going to see if I can borrow anything with ports from one of my friends just to see, but with this thing excelling at being tight and punchy, might as well stick to that in my mind.
