Recent content by aquarat

"radford sta25" Now that would be interesting to hear. Yeah those transformers are quite something... the frequency response curve on Sowter's website is near unbelievable. And as for noise, I know John took a lot of care making sure internal cabling was always in twisted pairs and had balanced...

You wouldn't stop listening to it either... I kid you not, post-apocalyptic first person shooters are damn scary with it driving front sound haha. The dynamic range never ceases to amaze me, this thing's noise floor is super quiet, even by solid state standards. As a result of the DR and a bit...

Awesome, so to recap, valves people actually use are : EL34 KT88 12AT7 12AX7 ECL82 EL84 GZ34 / 5AR4 6SN7 6DJ8 KT66 6L6GC 845 (maybe)

Thanks willem, for now I'm just aiming to get in good-value-for-money valves, like JJ, Sovtek and Electro-Harmonix, but I'll also try and source some NOS. Thanks for the suggestion. Of the valves you listed, which do you use for your own equipment ?

I have a couple of valve amplifiers and they use various types of valves. I always try and keep stock spare so if one valve fails I'm not left with silence. What I'd like to ask is, if I start importing valves, what valves should I import ? What valves do your devices use ? These are the...

John mentioned @ EL84 SE, gonna be interesting. I've asked him to investigate a stereo ECL82 SE he has lying around in his workshop :P . But yeah, that guy is a rockstar, damn, his workshop is a model for what I'd like to build (and learn to use), he's got amazing equipment everywhere. I was...

The final wiring is really neatly done - it got quite tight in there. I'll look and see if I have some photos just before completion. It's driving a set of B&W 685 S2s, both rear and front speakers are 685 S2s, the center is a second hand B&W, an HTM62 I think and the Sub is a cheap Sony unit.

I've got some matched JJ EL34 valves. I'll work out a priceand post it later. I'm considering buying a whole bunch of valves to build a small inventory for both my own amps and people who need valves.

Thank you all, glad you appreciate it and thank you Mars for the kind wishes :) . Your power transformer works nicely and only gets hot after several hours of use. The bias pots originally had long shafts on them, but John cut them down and then etched grooves into them for a screwdriver. This...

Hi All I thought I'd upload some photos of my completed stereo KT88 amplifier for those who might be interested. The chassis and power transformer were supplied by Karel/Mars as part of a kit, the output transformers are British-made Sowter units, supplied by BK. I sourced most of the valves...

Ah yes, the smooth hand movement was because the tuning fork operated at 320Hz... so the second hand stops and starts 320 times per second, but it looks like fluid motion to us :) . Thanks for that page Ampdog... there are certainly some interesting valves on there and some might be cheaper...

@Ampdog : I'm not familiar with that device, does it have a name or model number ? @entropyagent : What's the difference between a nerd and a geek ? :P Not sure where I sit on that continuum haha. I have another type of watch called a Bulova Accutron - it was the stepping-stone between wind up...

The 6AF6 valve seems to be a better choice than the 6E5; it's cheaper, smaller and the regions can be individually controlled, so it's possible to represent 15 minutes per segment if two valves are used per section (hh:mm:ss).

haha EntropyAgent... it's pretty cool, I got mine before they became popular. Steve Wozniak bought one and was seen using it after which they became wildly popular, so the guy that makes them increased his prices quite a bit and the tubes they use have also gone up in price like crazy. At the...

Hey steerpike Yes, Nixie-based clocks are a lot more popular... I have owned several since around 2009, including a wristwatch version. I just want to try something different. My plan is to use a bank of low bandwidth DACs to generate control signals for each of the valves. The signals would...