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Ray, You may find hereby attached, three texts which might be of help... tubes.zip

Nice work Bert!

O.K. Max, I'll give you a call for a meeting in the beginning of next week, if you are available. Have a nice Christmas until then!

Max, Just two more propositions: 1) The AUDIOMECA Romance-Romeo will do the trick for less than EUR 3000 and 2) Do not forget the KUZMAS http://www.kuzma.si which - in my view - might have the best price/performance ratio on the greek market. As a plus, and one should never forget this parameter, both are distributed by people who will back you up no matter what. I speak from experience, here...

Hi, If you like jazz, take a tour of www.maxjazz.com. IMHO, this is a label where recordings and performances are of near stellar quality. Only CD's though...

Hi, One should not forget that SONY bought CBS records (hence their rights on B. Dylan vinyl releases...), a long time ago. If they ever decide to reenter themselves the vinyl market in a big way, they surely can! FYI, some days ago, SONY also acquired MGM studios. But this, of course, is another story...

Cheers, Max! You just happened to write the best description of the Game's atmosphere I've read. Seriously... Have a nice (Hi-Fi and otherwise) winter, ahead.

C&S, There's much instinct involved in choosing, planning and executing a DIY project. I don't say that following one's instinct always leads to success. This is a quite complicated issue in which previous experience and general knowledge of the market (and oneself...) are also involved. Still, it is a sure thing that if a DIY project is successful, you can enjoy the same or even superior performance (rare!) of - equally successful - commercially available items, costing 2-3 times the price of your building blocks. The time you spend on it is not accounted for, of course! Colin, The white things on the capacitors are just felt pads. By the time this photo was taken, I was still voicing the thing, so I had to turn it many times upside-down. The felt pads were installed for scratch protection...

I think Dual Woofers said it: The pride factor is very important for a DIYer, although this means that the project (or mod, for that matter...) has been successful. Now, "successful" is a very tricky word indeed. I have met DIYers who have built electrically correct i.e. working, noiseless gear which sounded rather awful, for some reason. They, then, tried to persuade themselves for some time at least, that this was the best thing since white bread! I have also met many others who, liking a certain vintage component, modified it so much with audiophile components, that the poor thing lost its soul and became something else altogether (at great cost...)! To cut a long story short, DIY is something for people who are curious, like to do things with their hands and - last but not least - are psychologically ready to take the risk of failure and scrap the thing altogether. Or make a cheap first attempt, before seriously indulging in the construction of a project. That's exactly what I did with a tubed phono stage I built lately (see attachment. For more, go to: http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=10530). Finally, a good DIY project is carefully planned and executed over a rather extended period of time. This, IMHO, is a big part of the pleasure also permitting to avoid mistakes and also to spread the total cost into smaller increments. At the end, an - eventually - expensive - project seems less so. Especially if it provides the joy it is meant to! Just my 2c...

Ki, Electrical situation is same as yours. I do use an isolation (3kV) transformer, though... No hum whatsoever from this or any other amp I'm using. Still I consider myself lucky, as I reckon that this kind of problem can be very tricky indeed!

Alex, You've got mail!

Ki, Supposing that everything is wired correctly, AC balance set and no earth loops in the system the HK should not hum at all. Maybe yours is humming because of potential AC problems. In that case, an isolation transformer might do the trick...

Raptorman, I do not know what kind of speakers you have, but if these are KHorns you will love this amp! As for the mods, I did all of these myself and I would categorize them in 2 groups: 1) Those you must carry out just for your peace of mind, like replacing these selenium rectifiers or paper caps and 2) Those which demonstrably transform the Cit II into a killer amp, like using fresh 12BY7A's (matched in V1,V4), KT90's wired in triode mode and enhancing the capacitance both in the PS and the decoupling of the small tubes. Other mods are, IMHO, the icing in a very nice cake... Any tech can do the job, if you can't wait for Jim...

Jeff, I have personally tried many types of wooden corners but they all "sang". Bass only came on its own when I used about 1' thick marble slabs. Just my 2c...

Sorry Max...The only EL34's I have kicking around are a quartet of JJ's.

Gee Max! I'm also using Highland Park (Orkney Islands single malt) for my critical evaluations and it works each and every time... How much for a set of these feet? I might need one or two sets for the new gear I'm about to finish building...

Wolfram, I believe you have already tried the analog recordings of TACET (a German company...). And also these of the Analog Audio Association (based at Reutlingen). What is nice, though, is that alongside these analog devotees, a number of reputable sound engineers - like Tony Faulkner - are returning to full analog recording. There is a very good article on this trend in this month's HI-FI NEWS.

Although it's a wanker of an engine, the correct name is WANKEL!!!

A Black Gate is the tried, tested and generally accepted choice for this location. It's value is another issue, though...I would suggest you first try some cheap standard value caps between 100 and 400uF and, when you see what you really prefer, then buy the Black Gate.

Wolfram, Yes, it's easy although I think you have to experiment a little before touching your precious gear! Here's an idea: You go to an electronics shop and you buy what they call a "soldering kit". For 5-10 Euros you have a small soldering iron, solder, some components and a breadboard or printed circuit to solder your components on. Plus full instructions with tips and tricks included. Some kits even include a small multimeter... No rocket science, you know!

Wolfram, KT66's (and Mullard EL37's for that matter...) greatly intrigue me, although I am still in the research for the best compromise cost/quality-wise. Another (expensive...) alternative is the WE350B followed by the cheap and plentiful 807 which is compatible but requires a rewiring in the power tube sockets. Idem for the EL34, for which many people say that it blows away any 6L6 (and variants) in the MC-30's. Well, I have already made the test and I don't share this opinion at all. Not for one bit, although I very much like the EL34 otherwise...

Wolfram, For the last two weeks I have been listening to my pair of MC-30's (with new sets of tubes...), trying to discover why these amps are so well regarded by the audio community. Surely, I had no noise problems whatsoever but the total performance was just O.K. Even with output tube rolling (GE6L6GC and TUNGSOL 5881, even some good EL34's...) the results did not improve much. Then came small tube rolling with Mullards, Teslas, Telefunkens...you name it. Still, I could not understand why these beasts should be considered as "reference" PP amps, at least regarding their synergy with KHorns. But, as you know, Hi-Fi is a treacherous thing. Little by little, I have discovered that these amps are quite sensitive to tube type rolling. To cut a long story short, replacing the first 12AX7 with a 5751 or 12AY7 and the last 12AX7 with a 12BZ7 did much to improve the sonics of the amps. Finally, using the 4Ohm taps did much to remove the last vestiges of "haze" I was hearing. Result: Now, the MC-30's form the basis of a valid alternative to my HK Citation II, worthy of eventual further enhancements...

Hi Max, The amp is alive and well and you can have a look at it at: http://aca.gr/paper31.htm I try not to count amps, so I do not stop building them or, for that matter, buying some classics I like...Space is becoming tight, though. For the time being, I have just finished a headphone amplifier -preamplifier using... er OP-AMPS (OPA627's) which is quite promising and I am also about to finish a tubed MC phono stage which I hope and believe will be noiseless as well as first class. Let's see if my instincts will prove right...

Edster, I still own the T16 which is an excellent amp, very well suited to KHorns. Its sonic signature veers towards the analytical side of neutral and - as with every amp out there - should be well matched with ancillaries to deliver the best of its particular strength which, in two words, is to portray music in a cool, almost "intellectual" way. But, at the same time, the amp is very musical without any harshness or mechanical rendition of the musical event. Something which, IMHO, is no mean feat for any amp... This said, the T16 looses hands down to the HK Citation II regarding bass slam and control. Still, although the HK has not the classic "valve sound", these two amps are quite different in their approach. Much more different than, say, between the HK and the MC-30's.

I have made many tests with good PP tube amps on my KH's (including a recently acquired pair of MC-30's...), but I still have to find an amp that does better bass than the HK Citation II. By "better bass", I mean tuneful and controlled lower frequencies which - at the same time - are delivered in perfect harmony with the rest of the spectrum. Try one of these amps and you wont be dissapointed...