justinsweber

Its the tweeter attenuator. Allows me to fail back the tweeter. Tweeters are getting so hot that they can and do run in front of the midrange. Getting a neutral sound requires dialing in the output of each driver.

Top to bottom pretty darn impressive. I generally perfer to the SE-84... The SE84 is an all around solution, which does many many things really well... This was per pose built to see what the hype was about. Im using nice but supper cheap Monoprice phones... They have great reviews on AK and were $30 or so... what better way to test :-).

This is the SET DHT dream brought to phones... The mid range bloom is incredible. I love knowing the tubes are older than my father and finally being put to service... Mold on boxes and all. Having heard many a SS headphone amp I can do a brief comparison. SS is quitter though this amp is very very quite. The 1626 Tube Head phone DHT, Zero feedback has all the midrange and timbral I could want... Drive is very good with my 40ohm 100db efficient phones. I now know for sure that I like my SET amps with a hair of feedback... I may add -3db of feedback later but for now Im just enjoying the music... Back to the carpet starring at the ceiling... :-)

ALKs new crossover for me. I have a K401/ Selenuim D205 for mids, Eminence APt-200 for tweeter. The new cornscalawall is set to 600hz as my Eminence Kappa 15C goes that high with ease and will make life even better for the D205 driver. My history with the APT-200 is that its incredibly hot and needed to be attenuated. 3+ years ago I went with APT12-500 and ES-5600. I love the sound of my hybrid crossovers... near time alignment and all that good stuff, but they were expensive. The Cornscala wall gives me nearly the same flexibility at 1/2 the price... this was a serious hat trick by ALK. Having heard these in the form of cornscalawall 500/6000 I was in love... Just so musical. I couldn't afford big buck drivers for this PA rig... Id be too worried about them... and so the K401 1" driver dream was born. ALKs crossovers actually make these mismatched parts sing in harmony.

For most listening... I use a .75watt SET amp on my cornscalas and love it... You dont have to go big to sound great. Re: budget.... I woudl invest all you can in getting a set of hertiage speakers... La Scala or Cornwalls can be had for 700-1200 for the pair. Buy the emotiva A-100? (50watts stereo with vol nob). I own one, Dave owns one. They sound great and can be had for $220 new. Then save and buy a tube amp in the 1watt-60watt range of whatever you like and youll be golden. The Emotiva will give you years of dependable great sound. You will get better sound with a Tube amp but this will allow you to save. I would not sugest a diff SS amp if you are thinking about tubes. The price, build and performance is right. If tubes... yeah I likemy own stuff... but others as well. Many of the builders here loves SET amps...but in the 1000-1500 range you can go custom amp or Dynaco clones... BOTH SUPER SOLID CHOICES and much better than buying used. Used heritage or RF series speakers are hard to beat... go with new electronics.

60watts will blow your ears up. Heritage or RF series... both amazing choices. an ST-120 with vol nob is a truly worthwhile choice... I personal would pair with cornwalls or used la scales but hey that me.

I perfer SS pre... super freaken quite good bandwidth. Ive had tube pres and loved them, modifed PAS3, C220, my own... but if one is trying to stretch a dollar... go SS pre then tube amp.... UNLESS you are listening to alot of Heavy rock, Rap, ectronica... then reverse what I said :-) Bob Idea is a good one. If hooking up to a CD or DAC.... will be a great combo

I think tubes are timeless. Your speakers are insanely efficient and able to run with 5 watts without any issues. Some have said emotiva can be noisy with high efficiency speakers. The emo 300watt stereo is a great amp. I've heard it and really liked. The idea that you need big power is misleading and has alitto do with musical taste. Do you like heavy rock, rap, electricia. If so then SS is defin the right choice. If you everything else tubes will not leave you wanting. If you wanted tubes on a budget. Dynakitparts.com.The ST35 is a giant kill at 18 watts. Need more. So MKIV. The MKIII are great but the MK IV are so musical.

Thanx for the kind words... Its funny. I was putting in place last night and hated how I had 2 sets of speaker wire run so I went to town with sticky pads and zip ties... Now I gained back some of my closet spaced. The 2nd room is a modified super simple pre (Happy to share vendor of PCB if asked). and my Dynaco ST-35 in a larger chassis paired with Dave's coxials.... (Love those speakers). The 6B4G PCB is from Shannon Sparks.... wonderful config those like all things tweaked. (I went 6B4G as I like low power SET and NOS tubes I can afford!). The 6B4G is going into 2 way cornscalas. Im in the process of building a Kenzie/darling for myself as well (.75watt output into 5k 10watt iron). On the bench this amps just sings... Im debating whether to give in and put all iron up to... added cost but many prefer. I want with monster iron as I was given it as a gift from my wife... (Feb 14 yielded 2 pair of 5K Non-UL iron). God bless the ability to pick your own gifts :-).

Though the 6b4g is lovely it's not the fav. I am in the process of building my over specd 1626/darling/Kenzie. I actually believe .75watts is enough for daily use. My last Kenzie amp was used more often then my mc275 and this it left to a new home.

Not sure if I posted pics. We had a few orders which meant I didn't have a base to use until we did a new batch. Now we have African Mahogany, Sapele, and Walnut. I think Walnut mates very well with my black plinth :-). 2 chokes employed, and crazy big power supply. I didn't want to pay full bill for tubes and let my fingers do the walking with ebay. for the price of 1 pair of new tubes, I got 2 pairs of NOS tubes more than 50 years old and testing new. Power tubes are Tungsol, driver is a Tungsol 6SU7.... very special out of my stash!!!! and a GE mil spec rectifier. Everything is measuring 140 :-). The 3watts for DHT/ SET goodness is straps to a cornscala cab with Daves sp. Ed. ply horns and ALK APT12-500 B&C DE85TN for 2way good times. Detailed but relaxed presentation.

Im so sorry for the pain this illness is bringing. Sounds like she is a fighter which is a blessing... Im sure you just wish there was less fight to be had.