Agree fully to this statement, one has to be experienced to give advice. This loudspeaker is some kind of "special product" with only on paper great properties but in practice one must tweak the h*** out of it to come close to a mediocre sound. A beter product to have a go with Your first tube amp would be the Visaton B 200 broadband speaker. It is nothing special soundwise but does not need tweaking so much. You can add the tweeter and learn that these have a tiny spot for focussing. One could live with that if there is a fixed listening position but in practice it is not great either. Any decent designed tube amp can drive the Visaton with ease.
Then the next question will be: diy or off the shelf. Diy is to be found here, if you search you will find enough idea’s (the forum is loaded with these). Off the shelf is more complex as there can be junk (not because of bad design but from age). New ones are expensive not better just new. Some chinese can be a good start (cheap and easy to upgrade). Best you buy them second hand even by some who has upgraded one if you do not want to do it yourself. The nice thing about second hand is the value stays the same if you decide to sell it again or trade it.
If you look for low budget and reasonable quality then look for push pull amps. Single ended amps with a good low frequency response are expensive (big iron needed). Cheap Chinese amps do not have the best transformers but in push pull amps that is not an issue unless you need power.
If you look for low budget and reasonable quality then look for push pull amps. Single ended amps with a good low frequency response are expensive (big iron needed). Cheap Chinese amps do not have the best transformers but in push pull amps that is not an issue unless you need power.
I just came across this thread, your speaker is a great one, I have the Fostex FE 206-en that is similar to yours, despite what somebody here said is a fantastic driver capable to working with low or hight power with a SPL 97 dB,
what some people do not know is that it takes nearly 200 hours to really perform at it best, having said that your problem was my problem too, love to have a tube amp but impossible to buy anything with a reasonable price, please just do not be attract to buy anything coming from china, try to look in this forum somebody in your country able to build for you a good amp or build it by yourself, I personally built PP 30w and SE 3.9 watt and 1.3 watt, still my favourite is SE amp but remember is all question of personal taste, there is in this forum fantastic people able to help you in your journey...all the best
For around $500, a nice sweet-sounding PP EL84 amp can be made.
OT transformers...(Dynaco clone Z565)
Pwr Trans...(Hammond)
Tubes....
Parts/caps/resistors. etc...
Chassis....wire...
This amp sounds absolutely wonderful, drives my hungry floor-standing speakers well.
I would put it up against amps costing 5+times the price.
Options are variable feedback/damping, auto regulated bias (shown).
If you can find a Magnavox console stereo amp (93 series) then the pwr trans is already there, just rebuild the rest.
OT transformers...(Dynaco clone Z565)
Pwr Trans...(Hammond)
Tubes....
Parts/caps/resistors. etc...
Chassis....wire...
This amp sounds absolutely wonderful, drives my hungry floor-standing speakers well.
I would put it up against amps costing 5+times the price.
Options are variable feedback/damping, auto regulated bias (shown).
If you can find a Magnavox console stereo amp (93 series) then the pwr trans is already there, just rebuild the rest.
Attachments
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.