• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Valve pre-amp maintenance and purchase

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#126
Hi SY,
This is one of those times.
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Where do we disagree?? You just prefer using a wire type that doesn't show when you have been drinking wine and working with your iron! 😉

On the other hand, little burn marks may give an indication of an incorrect joint the next day as you troubleshoot. See how much time you could save yourself?

-Chris 😀
 
#129
re: wire strippers- they really come in handy. i got one from a surplus and it works great with teflon insulated wires such as- Audience wire, he he he.

hey, we now have 2, 3, 4 moderators in this thread 😀

mark, i hope you were able to download the schematic/construction guide- complete with voltage measurements, layout and pictures. i thought that it will help you get going on your first time build.

fwiw, i did not follow that 😀 i used my own layout and contrary to most i've read about their build having bad hum, mine is dead silent 😀

let us know how you progress.

i think i'm off topic 😀 😀 😀
 
#130
SY said:



OK, back to the topic. Every once in a while, anatech and I disagree. Not often, but on occasion. This is one of those times. I would go out of my way to source Teflon-insulated wire. I'm unconvinced of sonic benefits (see, Chris and I agree again!), but the temperature performance of Teflon is astonishingly better. No melties from careless soldering irons' accidental touches or overly long heating to try to solder to a big lug. No insulation pull-back. Superb solderability with silver-bearing solder. And almost always available at surplus.

Click to expand...

The pain is that everything costs lots of money to get to ireland or to buy in Ireland. It's actually ridiculous. I think I'll try and get some silver plated teflon wire. I might as well start as I mean to go on.

Giaime said:

:smash: Money... who sung this? He was right... :smash:
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Pink Floyd 🙂

arnoldc said:

hey, we now have 2, 3, 4 moderators in this thread 😀

mark, i hope you were able to download the schematic/construction guide- complete with voltage measurements, layout and pictures. i thought that it will help you get going on your first time build.

fwiw, i did not follow that 😀 i used my own layout and contrary to most i've read about their build having bad hum, mine is dead silent 😀

let us know how you progress.

i think i'm off topic 😀 😀 😀
Click to expand...
4 mods - I feel special 😀

I got the schematic thanks - I'm going to read it tonight!

Do you have the schematic you used? I'm not a fan of hum!

Any tips on places to order from that deliver within Europe?
A few different places to buy the valves/parts/wire etc would be very very handy 😀

Cheers,
Mark
 
#133
whoa!
blue car!

hehe,what a entertainment in this thread,I really enjoyed reading it...


just my few cents in overall story:

building one baby preamp (what Foreplay is,without any intention to be rude) and building one serious preamp is almost same thing ,meaning on complexity and amount of work;difference is in choice of parts and actuall schematic,or project-in different words.

most of work is in chassis,most of money is in pure hardware-switches(relays),connectors,pot,xformer etc

tubes are mostly less influent parts in overall sum of money;

thinking about all that,why not making some serious preamp,for change? 😉

just looking in this forum in last several months-12B4 preamp is most promising; I didn't tried it by my self,but I already have enough experience with similar approach;

aikido is ,at least from my point of view (hear ,hehe) less promising;

any sort of WOT ,parafeed but with decent current trough amplification tube will do decent job as preamp........


I personally recommend WOT approach.......


ps. all my comments are based with knowing Foreplay as intentionally cheap project ,with wimpy current through amplification tube(s)....maybe I'm wrong...or not?

anyway-Foreplay is great as idea and community project,but definitely not my cup of tea



for little more details for WOT preamp-google for Euridice preamp,or click at www button below my post


in any case-it's nice to see another one bites the vacuum 😉
 
#135
I build more than one Foreplay-like stage in my chase for fun and audio nirvana :clown:
I also build more than one so sought and adored stage all over audio community

but-I repeat-I base my comments on last seen Foreplay iteration ,as pretty low current stage with choke or with CCS or similar.

in preamps-I have simple conclusion: amongst other important things and details,current through stage is most important

choose mi which you need,but you always need big S and small Ri,or you easily loose dynamics


besides that ,supply is even more criticall than active stage,just because supply must not be active ,hehe.........

almost forget to answer what I'm asked- I base my comments on my Ears and Soul conclusions-not my brain's .........🙂

when I start to enjoy in music recreated with some (say) preamp,then it's good enough;
but after that,any weaker preamp is just-weaker;
nothing more,nothing less thn just a bunch of parts ,and offten (at least in commercial world) overengineered piece of 🤐
 
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