henry4841

Got the tubes from Tubedepot for the Premium Sweetie just now. Tubedepot sells the tubes for this build as various brands not specifying what you will get. I see it as so cool opening the box to see what you get this time. They sent RCA 6SJ7's and Sylvania 6Y6GA's. Look at those old 80 to 90 year old tube boxes the 6Y6's came in. Really cool for me to see them after being in storage for so long. The tubes themselves cost a total of $35.80. It is worth the price to hoard and have a pair in my little world. So cool.

I do have paint guns I used in custom car restorations years ago but darn if I want to go to all that trouble. Just cleaning the gun afterwards is more work than I want to do. If I cannot get it in a can it will not be done. 🙂 That and automotive paint has skyrocketed in price since I last painted a car.

Not so much distortion but each circuit can and often does put it's own flavor to the sound. Naturally if one of your pieces of equipment has a little bit of distortion you are going to amplify it on the next stage. You will not find any tone controls on any Passlabs or Firstwatt product. The thought is to keep the audio signal alone and keep it as pure as it went in. That is what single ended class A is all about. Keeping the audio signal as pure and original as possible. That is the reason class A is considered the purist form of amplification. No way do you want to put tone controls manipulating the audio signal after paying a premium price for a class A single ended Passlabs product. This is just one thought. Many like tone controls with treble and bass knobs. Nothing wrong with that after all this is entertainment. You do have to have your room and speakers dialed in together to accomplish this successfully. Using class A without boosting or reducing bass or treble with tone controls. All SET tube amplifiers are class A. My favorite form of amplification. That being said I still like the class A/B sound as well where the audio signal is split in half during amplification. That and class A PP. The guys that design upper end class A/B amplifiers put the signal back together after spitting do it really well with the advantage of more power and stronger bass. In SS amplifiers or tube amplifiers you can have class A action if the active devices, tube or transistor, is biased up high enough where they stay full on called class A push pull amplification. That is at a safe bias figure. Then the signal is split and put back together but the transistors or tubes are set to a specific number and not reduced and increased as in a push pull A/B amplifier. I hope I have not made this too confusing. Just different ways to achieve the same result. Pleasing sound and music.

And more. I plan on documenting the build more with pictures. I hope I do not reach my limit of pictures before I get through. First I drilled some holes in the wood where the potentiometer, inputs, etc will go. Then square it some with the jig saw. Then took some files and cleaned up the edges of those aluminum pieces that are going to cover the holes and hold the parts. Then was it was time to sand the edges making them pretty.

For those that are following along with this build here are some pictures.

🙂

No two people hear the same or have the same taste. Find what pleases you and the heck what others think.

I really like the idea of white. I bet it will look great. One problem for me though. I already have some attractive black wood screws to attach the plates to the wood. Anyone know where to get some attractive wood screws, at a decent price, for a white plate? I also like the look of aluminum but I do not want it to tarnish later on. Perhaps just spray some clear poly on the aluminum. Need to give some more thought before doing anything.

Those heavy air coil inductors look impressive but guys that really understand electronics know that as long as an inductor does not saturate at the chosen point of power by the designer it is going to work just as good as one that is more expensive. If it works great how are you going to make it better by spending more. The engineers at Klipsch, that have had electronic training, have decided that the inductor they use, iron core inductor most likely, will get the job done excellently without spending a lot more for eye candy. They know this, not by trial and error like novices, but by the specifications on the specification sheet of that part. They find an inductor at an electronic house that meets the specifications they are looking for and if they are really smart and have the lab they will test that inductor to be sure it meets what is specified in the spec sheet from the manufacturer. If so they are ready to proceed building their crossover design. Not many have the talent and means to do what a large company like Klipsch does designing a crossover period. Many of those youtube experts are just after your money. And succeed. If you have bought into the guy on youtube and purchased the kit it may sound good after doing the changes. But most certainly you will not hear what the audio the engineers at Klipsch decided sound best to them. You will be hearing what the guy, with dubious credentials, decided sounded good to him. Bet he does not have the equipment and testing facilities a large audio company like Klipsch has. What you think?

There is a discussion going on about GR Research on another thread on this website. This is one of those youtube experts. Slick talking salesman trying to convince the unawares that he knows better than the audio engineers at Klipsch that have been doing audio for what now over 70 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdKUc01yL8E For almost 15 minutes he goes on telling those that will listen how much smarter he is than those college educated electronic engineers at Klipsch. Then at the last of the video he says send him $900, plus shipping I bet, for those heavy coils of wire, and he will send you some impressive looking rolled into a circle copper wire and a few caps with instructions on how you have to build your very own crossover changing the crossover points making your speaker sound better. His sound is better than what the sound guys at Klipsch considers the best sound to them is what he wants you to believe. There was an old US Senator who was once asked by reporters what pornography is. His response was, " I do not know how to describe it but I know it when I see it." I would like to think at my age and with a little knowledge of electronics and having played with audio equipment off and on my entire adult life that I know BS when I hear it. You guys give some thought to what I just said and see if you agree with me. No thanks, I will keep my $900.

An active linestage with some gain will give some amplifiers a little more grunt. With the tube amplifiers I have I really have not found the need for it though. I am sure personal preference comes into play. Instead of a passive volume control I like to use an active buffer with no gain. You can build a really good one around an op-amp for practically nothing. I am using the FW B1 buffer by Nelson Pass which uses some J-fets for the buffer. Not sure any better than an op-amp buffer but Nelson likes using them. I recently built a Wayne Colburn, of Pass Labs, linestage which is really good for a gain linestage. At the volume level I listen at and the type of music I enjoy it does not get a lot of use though. But I have it when I want to play with it some. Below is a picture of the op-amp buffer I built a few years ago. Just playing with electronics. There is no right or wrong way to use electronic gear. The only thing that matters is what you like. Mike's way is as good or better than my way to listen to music.

That is good to hear. You are hearing old tube sound. Really old tube sound. You really do need a good source to listen with the 6Y6 amp. For it to really shine you need a really well recorded CD and a good CD player. That or if you are like me a well recorded LP and decent cartridge and player. Really good material in is going to sound really good coming out of an amplifier. Not so much good going in is not so good, sometimes awful, coming out. Remember you are amplifying the bad of a not so good recording with an amplifier. Going through those Barbara Mandrell LP's I recently bought some honestly sound like crap. Barely listenable. Poorly recorded. But the ones well recorded sound really, really good. Lovely voice.

I thought I would mention, I got my new old used signal generator I bought on Ebay today. I like it. Much easier to use than one of those $100 Chinese wonders where you have to touch buttons sometimes 2 buttons at the proper time to find what you are looking for. That and they can do so much stuff that I do not use nor what. Here is what I bought. https://www.ebay.com/itm/265853822656?hash=item3de61f66c0:g:rmYAAOSwUU1i~8x~&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoFsv0MU9wR5Nk3Po5srzjWyI4QACPV7Byvn3FlOsm3Uivi5BVKqsDxR7q%2B6dilb3vbU8glN1fDPQ8jo1wzrVHx41zCqtW5aLVEg92lPQ2JTxLE6haLQgIw%2Fl2z3vwKxwaz%2FUKdcWWx8K%2FkzCTQ77SZcX68TbbEtvJAbwTCQxxpGyq1gxR3vQrJ%2FliShaGy01egdar7rixIjBSwCbtduqr34%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4bQ14zgYA He has a 100% positive feedback and mine looks good and works just fine. I tried it on two scopes, one is one of those cheap Chinese digital scopes and the other an old analog Tenma. Those old analog scopes have a better looking sine wave than a digital scope. I guess, perhaps one of those expensive digital scopes will look almost the same. I tried the square wave function and the square wave looked really good up to 100K. As far as I will ever need a signal generator for. Mouser sells them now for $350, a little cheaper on Amazon. I paid $70 and a reasonable shipping fee. I hope it last for a few more years more than the last one. The seller most likely got them from a electronic tech school or something similar when they upgrade.

My brother had his removed last year I think. Took a little time but back to normal self in a few weeks.

H'm, deserves some thought.

Thanks for posting your thoughts Mike. I do not know of a place to have them anodized so for right now I am thinking of painting black.

All that is going to be done today. Have errands to run and do not want this project to become work. Now start on making holes in the aluminum sheets I cut. I was planning on sanding and painting the aluminum being that at times in the past the alum sheet would be scratched some. These pieces are scratch free. May just leave as is. I like the look of aluminum. Need to give it some thought. Any opinion guys?

I see we have another thread on the forum talking about capacitors. Like Dean (Crankysoldermeister) said, most of the time those threads do not end well. I cannot see that much to say about a capacitor. It seems it is a common part audiophiles like to talk about. Something to do I guess. The way I see it is it stops DC and lets AC through. That and the lower the number value of the capacitor the more it effects the high frequencies. Pretty much it if it is made right, which I will say all the capacitors sold by electronic houses such as Mouser are, will do the job just as good. The arguing starts with those aftermarket caps offered for sale from the small guys. I just about bet you money they intentionally roll off some of the high frequencies which pleases a large crowd of audiophiles. As long as people like and buy them they will keep making them. A designer can do the same thing with a electronic circuit when designing an amplifier without resorting to a high price boutique capacitor. I guess it does no harm discussing capacitors on this forum but I am afraid since Klipsch is now offering their approved capacitors for their speakers Klipsch will not take a liking to such talk. Probably best to avoid that kind of talk around the boss. Klipsch is the boss on this forum.

Possible used for firewood. It's a shame.

That is where it shines, vocals and tone. The sound takes me back to the 1920's and 30's. This is the sound they heard at that time. One has to put in perspective what tubes were at that time in history. They were the newest and best active device invented for 40 years. It was that long before transistors became common place and replaced the tube market. Much like transistor circuits they pretty much had it down pat the first 10 years. Not much has changed in tube circuits since the first decade. The designers and engineers got it right by that time. Oh sure some people play with different parts in a circuit now but for the most part much the same especially in 3 circuit SET amplifiers. Hard to make it any better from what the old guys did in them old schematics. Some use a SS device to do some part a tube used to do and I cannot see anything wrong with doing that if it is not in the audio part of the circuit. Like using SS rectifiers instead of a tube to do that job. Rectifying is not in the signal path. Certainly new ways of production of the components has advanced. Take for instance the talk of adding a choke in the power supply of this amplifier. I cannot see any way it is needed. The old guys used chokes because they were cheaper than capacitors to filter the ripple out of the DC. These days with modern high value capacitors being so cheap one can use high value caps and resistors to do the job that required chokes and small value caps in yesteryears . I bet you anything if the old guys were here now they would use the new capacitors and resistors instead of chokes and low value high priced capacitors for filtering. An amplifier like this Sweetie was the best available sound maker during that time. Most was in radios but for the most part the audio portion of an old radio was the same 3 circuit amplifier with two more tubes added for receiving and detecting the radio waves before passing the signal along to the 2 circuits that make up the amplifier part of the radio. That is the reason for more tubes in an old radio.

Also live in neighboring states. Chestnut was wiped out many years ago. That is a piece of furniture to cherish.

Can be. If I decide to part with it. Who knows I might decide to keep it, probably not though. I really do not go in so much for looks in an amplifier. An amp is just a tool in my book to do a job for me, produce music. The last Sweetie is more my kind of build, a serious looking tool. I do plan on keeping this one for a few weeks after building and listen to it being it is my first mono build. Will not hurt to put 20 or so hours on the tubes. Word is a tube does not sound it's best until one gets 100 hours on them. During the building process of a tube there are some impurities released for a number of hours when first used. There is what is called a getter in the tube that absorbs those impurities. From Wikipedia " A getter is a deposit of reactive material that is placed inside a vacuum system to complete and maintain the vacuum. When gas molecules strike the getter material, they combine with it chemically or by absorption. Thus the getter removes small amounts of gas from the evacuated space. The getter is usually a coating applied to a surface within the evacuated chamber." You can see the getter in a tube if one knows what to look for. If the getter is almost gone in an old tube it is a sign that the tube is getting weak and will soon need replacing.

Anyone want to see some mahogany furniture I built 25 years ago.

You can get by with this if you live by yourself for 27 years. And this is just one room of my house. 🙂