Toob Addiction (An Audio Odyssey For Music Fanatics)
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I used to know a kid with a mental condition (is mental condition an ok phrase?) that collected light bulbs. He had light bulbs that dated back to Edison's time. His dad was rich, so it made it easy for him to do this. He knew every aspect of everyone of those bulbs.
I also like music, mostly vinyl, but know nothing about the equipment, except how to change needles and belts on the turntable.
I also like music, mostly vinyl, but know nothing about the equipment, except how to change needles and belts on the turntable.
JJ EL84's and NOS RCA 12AX7's in V1 and V2 of my Dr Z Maz Jr NR. I think a JJ rectifier (possibly a Russian cheapie), not sure what the phase inverter is (I think a high-gain JJ 12AX7). Love to roll some vintage '84's in the output stage but I ain't made of money...
I got the idea to start this thread after we got to talking about tubes on another thread. For those deeply interested in audio, tubes, music reproduction and electronics, I will share a little bit about the system I created for music a few years back.
If this ain't your cup of tea, now is a good time to change channels.
Here attached is a picture of the main equipment rack from 2014 while in the final phases of putting it all together and does not show it as it is today or even all involved, but the central core of the equipment. That will be enough.
What is this? At the top is the CD player, it weighs 45 pounds and sits on a special isolation suspension. Above it (not seen) is the turntable. Normally these days, these are the only two main sources.
The silver-paneled thing next down in the preamp that mostly controls everything. All custom built into an old 1970's chassis, it is also a phono preamp based on the 12AU7. It sets volume, balance, input selection and a few other basic things.
Below that is an area of lots of knobs, lights and switches. Some of this again is all custom made. It is in four sections. The top two racks are electronic crossovers with equalizer which set the operating points for all the amplifiers. There are six power amplifiers involved. The next rack is just a row of power switches. Below that is a rack with more switches; this is the main power-up panel and cross-connects a variac (not seen) to the main system to bring the voltage up slowly on each amplifier to line one at a time, then cut it over to wall power. Turning the stereo on involves 17 steps. If you don't understand, never mind. Suffice it to say, no one touches it but myself.
The system is fed from three 15 amp isolated circuits through a pair of isolation transformers.
At the bottom of the picture are two QSC power amplifiers. There is a 15" sub-woofer (not seen) that is self-powered by a Class-H 1000W amplifier that goes from 15 Hz up to 80Hz essentially flat. Then the two QSC amps seen here power the mid-bass; two 18" 1000W drivers in vented enclosures that go from 80 to about 125Hz. These amplifiers are highly modified inside and run bridged in mono mode one for each channel at 900W each in balanced mode. In the rear, each (among other things) is fed cooled air via ducts from a 5000 BTU AC to keep from overheating. None of that was built yet when this picture was taken.
Further stuff not seen is a stereo tube power amp where each side feeds one of the 15" midranges from about 125 to about 800Hz. And finally, there are two more mono tube power amps not seen where each feeds a horn tweeter cross-overed to a super tweeter above 800 and 8000Hz respectively. These are fed cooled air as well. So you have about 2700-2800 watts solid state power for the bass down to the lowest pipe organ note, and nearly 200 rms watts tube power for the mid-range and treble, altogether able to give a strain-free (no distortion, no-clipping, no limiting) reproduction of realistic music at live sound levels (around 130dB) that convincingly sounds like there is a live group right there in the room. Very groovy. Believe me, the thing ROCKS. :
:
If this ain't your cup of tea, now is a good time to change channels.
Here attached is a picture of the main equipment rack from 2014 while in the final phases of putting it all together and does not show it as it is today or even all involved, but the central core of the equipment. That will be enough.
What is this? At the top is the CD player, it weighs 45 pounds and sits on a special isolation suspension. Above it (not seen) is the turntable. Normally these days, these are the only two main sources.
The silver-paneled thing next down in the preamp that mostly controls everything. All custom built into an old 1970's chassis, it is also a phono preamp based on the 12AU7. It sets volume, balance, input selection and a few other basic things.
Below that is an area of lots of knobs, lights and switches. Some of this again is all custom made. It is in four sections. The top two racks are electronic crossovers with equalizer which set the operating points for all the amplifiers. There are six power amplifiers involved. The next rack is just a row of power switches. Below that is a rack with more switches; this is the main power-up panel and cross-connects a variac (not seen) to the main system to bring the voltage up slowly on each amplifier to line one at a time, then cut it over to wall power. Turning the stereo on involves 17 steps. If you don't understand, never mind. Suffice it to say, no one touches it but myself.
The system is fed from three 15 amp isolated circuits through a pair of isolation transformers.
At the bottom of the picture are two QSC power amplifiers. There is a 15" sub-woofer (not seen) that is self-powered by a Class-H 1000W amplifier that goes from 15 Hz up to 80Hz essentially flat. Then the two QSC amps seen here power the mid-bass; two 18" 1000W drivers in vented enclosures that go from 80 to about 125Hz. These amplifiers are highly modified inside and run bridged in mono mode one for each channel at 900W each in balanced mode. In the rear, each (among other things) is fed cooled air via ducts from a 5000 BTU AC to keep from overheating. None of that was built yet when this picture was taken.
Further stuff not seen is a stereo tube power amp where each side feeds one of the 15" midranges from about 125 to about 800Hz. And finally, there are two more mono tube power amps not seen where each feeds a horn tweeter cross-overed to a super tweeter above 800 and 8000Hz respectively. These are fed cooled air as well. So you have about 2700-2800 watts solid state power for the bass down to the lowest pipe organ note, and nearly 200 rms watts tube power for the mid-range and treble, altogether able to give a strain-free (no distortion, no-clipping, no limiting) reproduction of realistic music at live sound levels (around 130dB) that convincingly sounds like there is a live group right there in the room. Very groovy. Believe me, the thing ROCKS. :
:
Finally, here is one more decent picture taken I have from 2015 that shows a little more a little closer to the system actually in use.
The equipment rack sits next to the operator from the listening chair. You can see the current turntable but I have two others much better but this one actually does the job very well. The table sits on a special isolation system I made. Behind it all, you can see one of the tube power amps.
How you enjoyed seeing a little of one of my main hobbies! :mrgreen:
The equipment rack sits next to the operator from the listening chair. You can see the current turntable but I have two others much better but this one actually does the job very well. The table sits on a special isolation system I made. Behind it all, you can see one of the tube power amps.
How you enjoyed seeing a little of one of my main hobbies! :mrgreen:
Grouchydog, not familiar with JJ, had to look them up. I see they are Slovak. Bet they are pretty good. I think all the tubes in my system are all NOS American and German stuff. No Chinese or Russian stuff. I probably need around 30 tubes altogether for everything. 12AX7 is a good tube. A little more commonly used than the 12AU7A. Sounds like what you are talking about above is more musician gear for guitar, etc. Tubes are definitely the way to go. Better harmonic structure. Cheers!
@toobfreak, cool stuff! Yes, I'm into guitars more than nuances of hi-fi (I like to hear a 100db Celestion with a ready-to-pop power-amp section following my Les Paul), so I'm not at your level of sonic discernment.
12AX7 is a standard guitar preamp and PI valve (among other purposes); to reduce gain (and therefore distortion) some guys like to use a 12AY7, 12AT7 or 12AU7 or whatever, but at that point you gotta say "man, do I have the right amp in the first place?" So y'all hi-fi folk like to minimize distortion but we axe-slingers are like "what distortion sounds best?" The original designers of the tubes in question are probably spinning in their graves at what we do to their carefully-designed valves...
S'all fun, no?
12AX7 is a standard guitar preamp and PI valve (among other purposes); to reduce gain (and therefore distortion) some guys like to use a 12AY7, 12AT7 or 12AU7 or whatever, but at that point you gotta say "man, do I have the right amp in the first place?" So y'all hi-fi folk like to minimize distortion but we axe-slingers are like "what distortion sounds best?" The original designers of the tubes in question are probably spinning in their graves at what we do to their carefully-designed valves...
S'all fun, no?
Nice! Before I saw this, I was all satisfied with my turntable plugged into a cheap entertainment center for a TV. I wouldn't mind having something to plug my ukulele or banjo into. ::
:
Very interesting.
I see these kind of amps for , how are they used?
https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Mid-to-High-End-Tube-Headphone-Amps
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/smsl-a2-stereo-amplifier
Is their purpose to simply add a means to play digital music from a phone/other directly to a set of speakers?
I see these kind of amps for , how are they used?
https://www.massdrop.com/vote/Mid-to-High-End-Tube-Headphone-Amps
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/smsl-a2-stereo-amplifier
Is their purpose to simply add a means to play digital music from a phone/other directly to a set of speakers?
Pagan - never heard of them! But I checked them out on Youtube. Definitely something I might have to buy in the future. I'm always looking for new music.
troutface - Ah, 300B's! Arguably the best tube ever designed. Real WE's. Those are pure gold. Single ended class-A, low wattage, but some of the purest sound in the world. As mentioned on the original thread, these were originally made to be put at the bottom of the ocean for intercontinental regenerative amplifiers where they never could be serviced. They had to work and last a long time. With efficient speakers you can probably get well into the 90 decibels sound level with sweet, transparent sound.
Al - those are headphone amps. In the old days, receivers had a 1/4" phone plug (TRS) and a built in op-amp driver inside for low impedance (8 ohm) headphones. But they delivered degraded sound quality. A lot of people are buying these now as a personal high-end solution. They keep the sound to yourself so you don't wake or bother others. These are quality little amps that usually connect to a line level output on the back of the preamp or receiver designed to drive good headphones with very high quality sound. All the rage over the past 15 years or so as they give far better sound quality than cheap earbuds and an MP3 player, or the old built-in headphone jacks.
There is a big company that always sends me catalogs called The Audio Advisor. Check them out. They will tell you all about headphone amps. You can call them up and talk to them. They sell lots of these too, lots of different kinds. I have not used any of them, if I use phones, I have a pair of high-impedance studio Sennheisers I just plug into a Line Out jack in the back of my preamp. Good headphones can run anywhere from under $100 to well over $2000. Some good brands worth checking out that I've used are AKG, Sennheiser and Joseph Grado. The Grado SR-60 is a very nice headphone for not too much money. For around $600 to around $1200, you can get some amazing planar electrostatic phones that are sheer delight.
Headphones - I have Sony MDR-V600's from about 1991. They were a hundred bucks then and have never let me down yet.
Currently I'm rocking a Reader's Digest Radio/8-Track (15 watts I think) to power my KLH's. :twisted: I'm betting somebody won a contest in the seventies. Never seen nor heard of one before. Everything else is in storage such as Pioneer receiver and Cerwin Vegas. I do have tubes coming out of my wazzoo, a few 6550's Westinghouse (?) or Sylvania and a bunch of smaller ones, mostly American NOS. I hope to build an amp someday and restore a bunch of stuff I have acquired over the years. I have some really old shit I cannot identify. :P
Currently I'm rocking a Reader's Digest Radio/8-Track (15 watts I think) to power my KLH's. :twisted: I'm betting somebody won a contest in the seventies. Never seen nor heard of one before. Everything else is in storage such as Pioneer receiver and Cerwin Vegas. I do have tubes coming out of my wazzoo, a few 6550's Westinghouse (?) or Sylvania and a bunch of smaller ones, mostly American NOS. I hope to build an amp someday and restore a bunch of stuff I have acquired over the years. I have some really old shit I cannot identify. :P
I'm all solid state..too much of my money goes to pipes!
BUT I do have a couple thousand LPs, EPs, and 7"s.
Current stereo is a Yamaha Yp-D71 Turntable (love this thing) with my favorite quadrophonic cartridge (Audio Technica ATS-34 I THINK).
Hafler SE240/Iris amp and preamp. Onkyo Integra EQ, and an Onkyo dual cassette deck.
Speakers at the moment are Ohm Walsh 2's. They really compliment my meager 2 way setup.
BUT I do have a couple thousand LPs, EPs, and 7"s.
Current stereo is a Yamaha Yp-D71 Turntable (love this thing) with my favorite quadrophonic cartridge (Audio Technica ATS-34 I THINK).
Hafler SE240/Iris amp and preamp. Onkyo Integra EQ, and an Onkyo dual cassette deck.
Speakers at the moment are Ohm Walsh 2's. They really compliment my meager 2 way setup.
I was a hard core audiophile for about 30 years, 70s, 80s, 90s. I bought more equipment over that time than I'd like to think about. Tube pre-amps from Dynaco to Conrad Johnson to Audio Research, and so on. Speakers from the tiny Pyramid Metronome 7 to the huge Magnaplanar Tympani 1-D. All kinds of amps again from Dynaco to Harmon Kardon Citation to Counter Point SA-2000 and so on. Turn tables, a few Thorens, modified AR with Infinity Black Widow arm, Oracle Delphi III with SME V arm. Way too much other stuff, tape players, CD players, and gobs of inter-connects and cables. After a while I realized I was listening to the equipment more than the music, and tubes were becoming too much like a religion. I now have a modest system that fulfills my needs, but because of tinnitus problems I don't enjoy it as much as I used to. I still love all kinds of music, and have hundreds of vinyl records and many CDs that I try to listen to from time to time. I know that now so much music is played through digital equipment that I can't grasp, so I never even read about the stuff anymore.
You do have some very cool equipment though and I can only imagine the sound you can create with it. I take it you have a stand alone home? :mrgreen:
You do have some very cool equipment though and I can only imagine the sound you can create with it. I take it you have a stand alone home? :mrgreen:
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