There are some SE valve amps for sale on eBay and the website of grippeaz.com for about £190.00 . They are bare, raw amps with no enclosure of protective body work which allows the purchaser to make their own to their own design. (according to the website) Any one any experience of opinions about them? They might make a more reliable alternative to the cheap Chinese imports. Only 5 watts but that's fine for me.
It appears to use a single pentode output stage with no feedback . Output impedence will be high so it may limit the application to open baffle or horn speakers . Distortion is also going to be rather poor . Is 5 watts achievable from an EL84 with a 2V RMS source ?
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The website suggests that they have worked hard on the transformer design, not that this means much to me as valve amps have never really gotten on to my radar. I've always wondered however about the side by side comparison of sound quality, watt for watt against solid state amps. Even if these amps don't make 5 watts I find 1-2 watts more than adequate for most normal listening levels with a single driver full ranger.
Would you say that these amps are not worth bothering with?
Would you say that these amps are not worth bothering with?
The output transformers look a bit odd , I have never seen flux bands used this way . I would strongly recommend contacting the manufacturer and ask them if the speakers you use are suitable as the output impedence will very high . I have tried pentode spud amps similar to this , I'm using 15" co-ax drivers bass reflex . The bass seemed to have a 'reggae guitar' like quality , top end was very sugary and very forward . Definitely needed some feedback...
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I too have been seeing these for some time on the ebay, and one came up for £99 I could not restrain my self. It is the 6v6 version. My system at present is solid state source, dht preamp, ECL86 SE amp, (still) and some NS1000s, which aren't such a bad load.
My first impressions of them is that they were a little rolled off at the top, and the bass a bit loose, It has a slightly dirty quality, dirty as in not squeaky clean, rather than grubby, strangely it is a sound that would not be unfamiliar to the lover of the vintage wireless, and in particular dansette type record players, the more cheap and cheerful ones. Not to say it is unpleasant, especially using a decent source and speakers, it also has the uncomplicated free-ness that only a feedback free tube amp can give. I have only had them running for an hour or so, and quickly modified them to be triode mode. I think it sounds slightly less pentode now, but has even less gain. I get the feeling that the output tranies are probably quite reasonable, certainly bigger than my ECL86se. I'll do an update when I have done a bit more probing / hours on them.
My first impressions of them is that they were a little rolled off at the top, and the bass a bit loose, It has a slightly dirty quality, dirty as in not squeaky clean, rather than grubby, strangely it is a sound that would not be unfamiliar to the lover of the vintage wireless, and in particular dansette type record players, the more cheap and cheerful ones. Not to say it is unpleasant, especially using a decent source and speakers, it also has the uncomplicated free-ness that only a feedback free tube amp can give. I have only had them running for an hour or so, and quickly modified them to be triode mode. I think it sounds slightly less pentode now, but has even less gain. I get the feeling that the output tranies are probably quite reasonable, certainly bigger than my ECL86se. I'll do an update when I have done a bit more probing / hours on them.
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