In your opinion, what exactly was the part of whatever I commented on, stupid?
I'd love some clarification.
Well, you came down to a man's subforum, that he likely pays good money to sponsor, where he spends a considerable amount of time teaching a LOT of people, including myself, and then you insult his work, either intentionally or from ignorance of the nature of it.
Not exactly Einstein territory on your part.
But that's just my opinion.
Not exactly Einstein territory on your part.
But that's just my opinion.
Well, I understand that is your opinion but don't throw everything and everyone under the bus. Sometimes people want to try, experiment, or just save a few bucks.
My very first tube amp build worked well and sounded great, but with all the rework, changes, explosive capacitor scars, solder splatter, parts swapping, it was never Conrad Johnson in the looks department. It was a success because it worked. That was 30 years ago and I never dreamed of ordering online from Mouser because what was this internet thing.
Next build is in the parts collection phase of a pair of SS Class A monoblocks and using a pair of China made microwave oven transformers as chokes all because it has be done. A few of the more respected builders here tried it with results and at $50 for a pair shipped from China (and at a total cost savings of $150+ USD equivalent versus for a pair of Hammond chokes), not a bad saving. I have massive finned heatsinks from an industrial SS rectifiers that I rescued from the dumpster that need a good power wash that will stand up to the heat. Add in a couple of 24V SMPS at $12 USD a piece (clean power doesn't affect the performance of the amplifier) and I am off to the races. Biggest decision now is whether to build it on plywood like the others have or use wood.
The amp is Pass approved (in fact he has commented in the thread located in the Pass section here many times and provided guidance too) and has a low parts count.
I'd love to put it in a 4U chassis with a universal PSU and exotic parts and drive up the cost, but all that won't make it sound any better (Nelson Pass has stated that). I'll keep money saved that maybe for another SS Class A or a monster Pete Millett red board tube amp or a PPP tube amp.
I am pretty serious about building a successful amp and don't believe anyone building an amp is wasting their time, but at the same time I can respect their choices and wouldn't be critical of the choices they make.
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The part I quoted. If your goal is really to express your opinion that differs from others and have it respected then doing it in a way that belittles others is stupid. You're just going to elicit a negative reaction and nobody benefits.
I wasn't aware that I was insulting anyone specifically, however I suppose that due to the internet and its lack of conveying context, some people get more easily offended than others.
In person, and at my repair shop, I've always had good conversations with customers, enough that my name and reputation as a seasoned and scarce authority on vintage equipment kept me quite busy through the years.
The very rare exceptions to all this were from unreasonable people who demanded unreasonable results.
Everyone's bound to expect that at one time or another...... it's life.
A lot of our normal social cues get stripped away when communicating on internet forums. All we have is the words filtered through our imperfect selves.
At the insistence of the wise one, I tried to get serious and order the new $25 SE OPT from Edcor with wires on it. When I went to checkout and found that they wanted $31 to ship a tiny 1.2 pound $25 transformer, all seriousness was immediately slapped out of me.
I cancelled the Edcor order, and ordered another piece of non seriousness from Amazon Prime with free shipping.....this one has made it out of New Jersey and into the hands of the USPS. Maybe I'll actually get it in a day, a week, who knows, but the tracking number says tomorrow.
I cancelled the Edcor order, and ordered another piece of non seriousness from Amazon Prime with free shipping.....this one has made it out of New Jersey and into the hands of the USPS. Maybe I'll actually get it in a day, a week, who knows, but the tracking number says tomorrow.
I was banned from another forum because I committed the unwritten sin of questioning a moderators deletion of one of my posts where I responded to a post where two guys were arguing. It's good to see that the moderators don't have to moderate so much on DIY Audio. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and opinions. That's why I try and keep my opinions to myself and if I express them it's based on personal experience.
My experience has shown that George had designed and offers a superbly operating amplifier that sounds wonderful. I personally use only US or a few European brand vacuum tubes because that's what I've got. Not going to bash any other component because the laws of physics apply to the universe. Not that I've been searching for exceptions, but these laws work the same everyday, year after year for my short life span. (Short relative to the age of the universe).
The best thing about the internet and all its associated good and bad attributes is that no one is forced to open an email, read a forum. You can choose to ignore by pressing a button, or not pressing the power button on your computer.
All this is triggering me to want to go into my garage and pop open a beer and listen to the some music.
Okay, I'll wait until afternoon to pop open a beer...
My experience has shown that George had designed and offers a superbly operating amplifier that sounds wonderful. I personally use only US or a few European brand vacuum tubes because that's what I've got. Not going to bash any other component because the laws of physics apply to the universe. Not that I've been searching for exceptions, but these laws work the same everyday, year after year for my short life span. (Short relative to the age of the universe).
The best thing about the internet and all its associated good and bad attributes is that no one is forced to open an email, read a forum. You can choose to ignore by pressing a button, or not pressing the power button on your computer.
All this is triggering me to want to go into my garage and pop open a beer and listen to the some music.
Okay, I'll wait until afternoon to pop open a beer...
My electronics hobby began at a young age when I "made" a guitar amp by twisting and taping the wires from a severed guitar cable to the wires in the tone arm of an old Magnavox mono console record player. This was long before I could solder.
Within a few years I was digging up all the "wrong" parts from discarded TV's radios, and HiFi sets in a nearby trash dump landfill and making guitar amps from scratch. By now I could solder, but had no clue what impedance, load lines, or even bias meant.
Still, I made guitar amps out of the wrong stuff, some worked, most didn't, but ALL were a learning experience. In life, we should always be learning something. When we stop learning, we start growing old, and when we start growing old, we start dying.
Whether its serious or not, getting an $18 OPT to test in an application where good specs are not that important is an experiment, and a learning experience.
Yes, the odds of getting satisfactory performance would be better with a $25 OPT designed and made in the USA by a serious company, but at the delivered cost of $56 ($25 + $31 shipping) it's not an option right now.
As I said before, the possible application would be a ultra low buck guitar amp. Anything SE requires a gapped OPT, or some circuit tricks. Either of these make the cost of SE well beyond that of P-P, so the whole thing is likely a non starter. I already have, and play often, a little P-P guitar amp that can be built very cheaply. I use this for a $3 OPT:
70V 10W Speaker Line Matching Transformer
Within a few years I was digging up all the "wrong" parts from discarded TV's radios, and HiFi sets in a nearby trash dump landfill and making guitar amps from scratch. By now I could solder, but had no clue what impedance, load lines, or even bias meant.
Still, I made guitar amps out of the wrong stuff, some worked, most didn't, but ALL were a learning experience. In life, we should always be learning something. When we stop learning, we start growing old, and when we start growing old, we start dying.
Whether its serious or not, getting an $18 OPT to test in an application where good specs are not that important is an experiment, and a learning experience.
Yes, the odds of getting satisfactory performance would be better with a $25 OPT designed and made in the USA by a serious company, but at the delivered cost of $56 ($25 + $31 shipping) it's not an option right now.
As I said before, the possible application would be a ultra low buck guitar amp. Anything SE requires a gapped OPT, or some circuit tricks. Either of these make the cost of SE well beyond that of P-P, so the whole thing is likely a non starter. I already have, and play often, a little P-P guitar amp that can be built very cheaply. I use this for a $3 OPT:
70V 10W Speaker Line Matching Transformer
Given their source, I would tend to err on the side of safety. They do have a visible plastic bobbin which highly reduces the risk of a short to the metal core or frame.
You can set them on a non conductive surface and do a temporary test without grounding the frames, but you must treat them as if the metal parts are connected to B+. In other words DONT touch them whenever the amp is plugged into the wall outlet and keep others away from the whole setup.
When the Amazon OPT arrives, I plan to take out my old SSE test board, the same one seen in post #173 of your other thread, hook up the OPT, a power transformer place it all on the wood bench, and fire it up to take some measurements. I have Edcors, the tiny Fender Champ replacements, some Transcendars and maybe more to compare them to. Then I plan to rerun the test with a UNSET board to see if UNSET does really make a crummy OPT work better.
I make it a point to step back from the bench when it's powered in this manner, and remove the line cord completely from the amp before messing with it. This avoids the nasty surprise when you accidentally plugged the amp back into power when you thought the plug went to the soldering iron.....yes I have done that, not once, but TWICE.
I disconnect both ends of the power cord and place it out of reach. It's like removing the mag and emptying the chamber. Two actions are then required to do something hazardous.
You can set them on a non conductive surface and do a temporary test without grounding the frames, but you must treat them as if the metal parts are connected to B+. In other words DONT touch them whenever the amp is plugged into the wall outlet and keep others away from the whole setup.
When the Amazon OPT arrives, I plan to take out my old SSE test board, the same one seen in post #173 of your other thread, hook up the OPT, a power transformer place it all on the wood bench, and fire it up to take some measurements. I have Edcors, the tiny Fender Champ replacements, some Transcendars and maybe more to compare them to. Then I plan to rerun the test with a UNSET board to see if UNSET does really make a crummy OPT work better.
I make it a point to step back from the bench when it's powered in this manner, and remove the line cord completely from the amp before messing with it. This avoids the nasty surprise when you accidentally plugged the amp back into power when you thought the plug went to the soldering iron.....yes I have done that, not once, but TWICE.
I disconnect both ends of the power cord and place it out of reach. It's like removing the mag and emptying the chamber. Two actions are then required to do something hazardous.
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