Hi Alex,
The link is just for the US Audio Mart. You may search for 6V6 tube from there.
300B, 2A3 experiances wanted
I took the plunge and bought an Elekit 8900 which I plan to assemble later this year when the weather here in the Northeast starts to get too nasty to be outdoors. I have not bought the tubes yet and would greatly appreciate hearing from any of you who have direct experiance with this amp and the tubes it takes. It will be played into, at different times, Klipsch Heresy 1's, homemade open baffles featuring Lii Audio F15 full range speakers with no crossovers and maybe even my KEF LS50s on occasion.
I like detail, texture and tone as well as a sense of space and air. Generally listen to acoustic instruments in the jazz and classical traditions, 80-85 db being plenty loud for me. I'm interested in what you think are the best bang for the buck tubes as well as some that might be on the aspirational side.
My prior tube experiance included a Dynakit ST-35 amp i build last winter and a Decware Zkit SE84 I put together the year before that. I find the Deware strangely enchanting but a bit noisy, and the ST-35 is clean and clear but, perhaps because it is a push-pull design and and not a SET, sometimes not as magical as the SE84. Kind of hoping that the third tube amp, Elekit TU8900, with the right tubes might be the charm. I might mention that I plan to build it stock initally but might consider investing in alternate caps and output transformers if the vaunted 300B/2a3 lives up to it's legend.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
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There are a lot of vintage 6v6 tubes. Which of them sound good? The new 6v6 I see Psvane. I have Pasvane 5u4g and 12ax7 and they do sound good. On the level of good (but not the best) vintage tubes. There is a new JJ 6v6. But I have a JJ ECC803S and I hate the sound of this tube. They have such a bad midrange. They sound like a bad SS amplifier. So JJ tubes are not my cup of tea. |
@bruce19 That ’magic’ you’re looking for in an SET might be mostly distortion- they make quite a lot of it, mostly the 2nd harmonic which gives ’warmth’ to the sound. I’d give your ST-35 another chance. Here are the considerations that will help it out: 1) driver/input tube- the NOS ones are better. 2) coupling caps. This is a bit tricky in the SCA-35 but in the ST35 I think you have the room to install something similar to what you see in a lot of SETs. The 2A3 assumed the mantle of King from the 300b sometime in the late 1990s and the type 45 in the early 2000s succeeded it. Its not because any of these tubes sound any better than any of the others- its because the smaller tubes are easier to drive and its much easier to make an SET output transformer with bandwidth if you make it for lower power. So the 300b doesn’t stand a chance if you equalize all the other variables like power supply, transformer quality, parts quality and drive concerns. But I’ve found that if you put a PP amp against an SET, the PP amp is obviously wider bandwidth and more transparent (easier to make out vocals and the like; because the higher distortion of SETs obscures detail). So I think you’ll want to think this one through very carefully. Do lots of audition, but if you do so try to limit the variables! For example, most of the time PP amps are considerably higher power, use feedback and may not be class A (I think the ST35 is BTW...). If you really want to hear what the difference there is about its best done with a PP amp of the same power and build quality as the SET... SETs tend to sound ’dynamic’ because of the way they make distortion; for this reason they really don’t have much more than about 20-25% usable power before distortion causes them to sound ’dynamic’. On this account you really need an efficient speaker so you never have to ask greater power! By comparison almost any PP tube amp has more like 90-95% usable power, even if its zero feedback. I’d give your existing amp another chance before you change it out! |
I upgraded my 300b SET amplifier. I replaced 6f6g Torvac driver tube to 6v6 Psvane. 6f6 worked with idle current 26ma. 6v6 withe the same cathode resistors gave 24ma. I changed cathode resistor to get 29ma. In result much better bass control and dynamics, better instruments separation. Conclusion, the more powerful driver is better for 300b. I know some folks (including Sacuma) end by 300b driver for 300b. |
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