hurdy_gurdyman

Great to hear things are sounding promising. Get well soon, Bob, and best wishes. Dave

>i remember disco< Personally, I'd rather forget it. Dave []

Good idea. Why didn't I think of that? Dave[:$]

Looking for opinions from a few different forums. I've been happily listening to my TAD-60 amp driving the Silver Iris OB speakers for a couple of months now. The amp came with used EL34 (Svetlana) tubes. Running them 8-16 hours a day, it's just a matter of time before needing replacements. The amp is set up to take EL34, KT88 and 6550 tubes (triode and ultra-linear mode.) I'm looking for opinions on which way I should go. This is a bit of a major purchase for me these days, so I could use some experienced guidance here. Things to consider include longetivity under long hours of playing, non-fatiguing high end, taunt bass and good midrange for acoustic instuments. I'll be listening mostly in triode mode (unless one of the other tube types proves to sound better in ultra-linear mode.) I listen mostly to jazz and folk with some classic rock thrown in quite a bit. Here's the amp I use. http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TAD-60.html Here's the speaker drivers used (mounted on open baffles.) http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/drivers.htm Let's hear what you experienced tube rollers have discovered with amps that can do this type of conversion. Thanks. Dave

I owned a 500C for over 15 years and used it off and on (along with various other vintage tubes and ss amps.) They are a nice sounding amp, but should never be considered good for bass. They have a very "warm" sound, even for a vintage amp. Modern good quality tube amps will leave them in the dust as far as bass goes. Many properly rebuilt vintage amps will, also. The 500C never had as good a transparency as some of the other amps I had, either. They did sound very nice and smooth in the right system, easy to listen to, but not representitive of what's available today with tubes. A really good tube amp can rock in the bass and everywhere else. You can't judge all tubes on one vintage tube receiver noted for being overly warm sounding.Dave

With all the discussions here of tubes vs SS, SET vs PP, etc, I thought some of you might like to read these papers. They are written a bit different than typical tech papers. I enjoyed them. http://www.vaughnaudio.com/tech-papers.html Dave

Audiogon has some interesting threads about the TAD-60. http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr_srch.pl?0&1&procsrch&3&4& Dave

I thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. You mentioned the TAD-60. I have had one of these for a couple of months now. These are a very modern sounding amp with lots of taunt bass and a silky-sweet treble. Mids are wonderful. Enough gain to use without a preamp. I like these far better than the vintage Heathkit, Scott, Fisher, Bell, Altec and harman-kardon amps I've had. I can't compare them with the other amps you mentioned (which, I'm sure, are fine amps), but I do know they are great amps in their own right. http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TAD-60.html Dave

Larry, Got it this time. I sent a reply. Dave

Larry, I've checked my email several times, but nothing from you yet. Perhaps you should re-send. Dave the_hurdy_gurdyman@yahoo.com

I've decided to sell my Thorens TD-160. It's in good shape with only a few minor scuffs on the Plexiglas cover. One of the pins the cover hinges on is missing and has a small nail in it's place, otherwise looks good. No cartridge included. I can take pictures and send them via email. I package things well for shipping. The reason for selling is that the TD-160 just doesn't do well on a springy floor. It's a well built table with a great reputation, but really needs a concrete floor or wall mounting. My floor is just way to springy for this table. Price is $150 plus shipping. If interested, send me an email. the_hurdy_gurdyman@yahoo.com Here's a pic. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_hurdy_gurdyman/detail?.dir=6d5d&.dnm=50c3.jpg&.src=ph (The origional mat is being sold with the table, not the one in this picture.) Dave

Congratulations to both of you! Dave

Looks like I solved the heat problem. I cheated! I took one of those little pentium cooling fans (nice little ball bearing model) and hooked it up to a 6.5 VDC wal-wart (normally runs on 12 VDV.) The fan, which now runs very slow and quiet, is mounted next to the test sockets on top of the chassis, pointed diagonally toward the transformer (the side facing the 5AR4 rectifier tube.) There is barely any noticable airflow, but it's just enough to cause the two trannies to run at about the same temperature. It's beginning to look like it may have been heat from the rectifier and power transformer was causing the hot running of the right tranny. The amp is sounding great and is not running hot enough to worry me anymore. Thanks again Craig for your patience and help. Dave

Craig, I found some instrutions on setting balance by hooking a wire to the right channel speaker output and plugging into left channel tuner input, remove right driver tube and adjust pot for minimum hum. Decided to try this with both channels and see if the heat lessens. I'll leave it on a few hours and see. I'll be leaving this afternoon for a music fest and won't be back till Sunday evening. I'll post how the amp is doing before I leave, then check back in Monday morning. Thanks for the help. Dave

Craig, My hands are pretty soft these days, as I've been working as a luthier and musician for several years. Because of health issues, I don't even do a lot of either these days. The only way I know how to balance for DC is with a VTVM or VOM by checking for any DC between the output pair grids. Chances are there is a better way, huh? Dave