Hi all! I found your forum while searching the web for some answers and ideas concerning a tube amp I was building. I just finished building a tube amp kit from Douk and have it working well. I've been wanting to build one from scratch using largely my own design and layout. It's actually on my bucket list" to do this. I have most parts purchased, now all I need to do is find the time to get busy on it. I'm trying for about 30w per channel, but I wont get into that here. I've been into electronics since a kid, even building a PP 6V6 tube amp from parts I had around as a teenager - from a repair book schematic! It worked fine!
I spent the 1st 20 years or so of my career working on TV's and such for Sears, (thus my user name) catching the very end of the tube sets in the mid 1980's. I gave it up in the early 2000's when things went to board replacements and alignments on projection sets and switched over to small engine work. Weird I know, but I learned mechanics off my dad (he was a mechanic) and electronics off my uncle (a US Navy radar tech), so it wasn't a big change for me. I always had an interest in the hobby, especially tube electronics but lost interest when the parts vendors closed and parts & info was difficult to get. I boxed stuff up and threw it in the attic.
I found a Philco 70 on eBay and began investigating things and found with the internet, I could not only find parts again but also information and support groups. After completing the resto on the 70, I took a room upstairs - (had to remodel my sons room to accomplish) - and created my "radio room". modeled after a write up in an old Marcus & Levy book from the 1950's, restored my test equipment (some built by my uncle), and began my renewed interest in the hobby.
I have restored and repaired quite a few radios, TV's and guitar amps, and built a couple ChiFi amps with good results, as well as a couple AM radio transmitters. Now it is time to me to venture out and build my own. I am mostly interested in HiFi tube amps, and some guitar stuff. Yeah, I play too. I haven't been super pleased by most of the offerings I've found - seems to me there is kind of a gap between the lower power stuff and really high power stuff. Not much in the middle ground. Most China kits are single ended, which work fine, and more recently, a lower powered PP kit (just finished it) but get frustrated by the lack of documentation and often have to work out problems. I even made a set of instructions for my 1st build and made a list of notes with this latest. Anyway, I think there will be a wealth of information here and will share what I have learned as well. I'm old school and not the best in math either.
I spent the 1st 20 years or so of my career working on TV's and such for Sears, (thus my user name) catching the very end of the tube sets in the mid 1980's. I gave it up in the early 2000's when things went to board replacements and alignments on projection sets and switched over to small engine work. Weird I know, but I learned mechanics off my dad (he was a mechanic) and electronics off my uncle (a US Navy radar tech), so it wasn't a big change for me. I always had an interest in the hobby, especially tube electronics but lost interest when the parts vendors closed and parts & info was difficult to get. I boxed stuff up and threw it in the attic.
I found a Philco 70 on eBay and began investigating things and found with the internet, I could not only find parts again but also information and support groups. After completing the resto on the 70, I took a room upstairs - (had to remodel my sons room to accomplish) - and created my "radio room". modeled after a write up in an old Marcus & Levy book from the 1950's, restored my test equipment (some built by my uncle), and began my renewed interest in the hobby.
I have restored and repaired quite a few radios, TV's and guitar amps, and built a couple ChiFi amps with good results, as well as a couple AM radio transmitters. Now it is time to me to venture out and build my own. I am mostly interested in HiFi tube amps, and some guitar stuff. Yeah, I play too. I haven't been super pleased by most of the offerings I've found - seems to me there is kind of a gap between the lower power stuff and really high power stuff. Not much in the middle ground. Most China kits are single ended, which work fine, and more recently, a lower powered PP kit (just finished it) but get frustrated by the lack of documentation and often have to work out problems. I even made a set of instructions for my 1st build and made a list of notes with this latest. Anyway, I think there will be a wealth of information here and will share what I have learned as well. I'm old school and not the best in math either.
