alexberger
Responses from alexberger
| Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough? Sun Valley 845 doesn't use an inter-stage transformer between driver and 845 tube. 845 is impossible to drive without IT! You get more driver tube distortions than 845 output stage distortions. You also can't get a good deep and fast bass. The ... | |
| Revisiting Chinese Knockoff Cables Does anybody compare Nordost Valhalla 2 knock off speakers cable speakers cables that cost around $1K and more for 2m pair? | |
| Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough? Hi @mclinnguy , I never had Tamura output transformers. But I had James Audio. Hashimoto gives more low level details then James Audio. It terms of tonal balance they sound similar. But other tweaks that I did (cathodes, power supply capacitors... | |
| Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough? I built and now use my DIY amplifier not to save money but because I wanted to make an amplifier better than the market offers. I use output and interstage Hashimoto transformers plus James Audio and Hashimoto power transformers and Hashimoto ch... | |
| Revisiting Chinese Knockoff Cables I bought Odin ii power (1.5m) and Odin ii Gold RCA interconnect (1m) knock off cables. I got both cables a week ago. I put an intercont cable to FryBaby2 cable burner for 4 days. After that it sounds wonderful, comparable to my 25 years old Acr... | |
| Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough? I had DIY 300B amp that I tweaked and in the end rebuild it from scratch. For 300B is very important the driver tube (more powerful is better) and driver inter-stage transformer works much better compared to RC coupling. How many maximal dB do w... | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? IMHO amplifier is more important than speakers and sources. | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? The cathodes are one of very important issues in SET tube amplifiers. Some people use a fixed bias solution for the SET output stage. But there is the same issue in the input and driver stage and most designers do nothing to solve this problem. T... | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? Hi @emergingsoul , This is a good question.I thought about it, to make stuff about tweaks on youtube. But my English is not good enough to do it. English is my 4th language. I am also not a good speaker in general. For me it is much easier to wri... | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? I had a 300b integrated SET amplifier from 2005. I tweaked a lot of different things: 1. Interstage capacitors. 2. Tubes working points. 3. Cathode and load resistors. 4. Power supply capacitors. Including increased value of capacitors from 1... | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? In SET amplifier: 1. Output tube. 2. Driver tube. 3. Coupling between stages (transformers and capacitors). 4. Cathodes (cathode or fixed bias, cathode bypass capacitors size and quality, resistors). 5. Signal transformers quality. Output, in... | |
| What Power Amplifier Should I Buy? Why do most modern 15 inch drivers like modern JBL and Tannoy are made for very powerful transistor amplifiers? These drivers have a very high moving mass and are designed to survive very high power. It is done in compromise in sound quality and ... | |
| What Power Amplifier Should I Buy? Hi @lynn_olson , In the Montreal show were the Coherent speakers Model 18 (18" coaxial Radian driver with Neodymium magnet and aluminum diaphragm). In 2022 they used a 300B Allnic Audio T-1500 300B SET stereo amplifier. This setup sounded the be... | |
| What Power Amplifier Should I Buy? I listened to and liked Coherent model 18 on the Montreal Audio show. These speakers are very sensitive and sound very easy and uncompressed (in the way like my Altec 604E) but with deeper bass and more smooth and extended high frequencies. They a... | |
| What Power Amplifier Should I Buy? Hi @lynn_olson Are you familiar with JBL 4430/4435? https://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/jbl/4430-35.htm They have a smooth sounding horn section compared to other vintage speakers. |