ANTIQUE SOUND LAB Wave 8, bench tested and improved

[justinsweber]

ANTIQUE SOUND LAB Wave 8   $400.

2 tube mono-block amps. I bought these from a friend have went about completing a full reconditioning of these wonderful amps. Buy without concern, fully bench tested, and re-tubed. Go to ampsandsound.com to see more of my work. . . its bar none. I bought for $300 for the pair and have $200 in upgrades/reconditioning.

 

Each amp had the coupling caps replaced with tight tolerance 5% orange drops. The traditional DC filtering was done with use of a simple 3watt resistor. I opted to include a 4henery choke dropping the DC ripple to nil and the noise floor further improved. The pair was run-in with Freq sweeps and test music before complete bench testing. All voltages are correct and the S/N is considerable lower. The amps include 4 complete sets of US good pulls. I ordered new NOS tubes and have installed. The amps are just right. . . incredibly musical. They are spec'd at 8watts. With the increases to D/C filtering and new tubes. . . I was able to get 10watts on my meters.


The Wave 8 clearly provides the tube sound, for a pittance of the price of most good tube or solid-state amplifiers. They perform with a joyous snap and pop. More like the exuberance of college football than the smooth professionalism of the NFL. Yet, the low cost and low powered tube amps were wonderful to hear. They have a whiff of the rare air of magical audio combinations. Indeed, I found myself returning again and again to rock recordings and playing the Waves loud.


Output power: 8 Watts
Frequency response at 1 Watt:
20 Hz-20 Khz. +/- 1 dB
Frequency Response at 8 Watts:
30 Hz-18 kHz. +/- 1 dB
Distortion at 1 Watt: < 1%
Distortion at 8 Watts: <5%
Input impedance: 100k Ohm
Input sensitivity: 500 mVolt
Output impedance: 8 Ohms
Dimensions: 6" W X 12" D X 5.5"
Weight: 7 lbs

Justin 323-868-9722

 

 

 

[Mallette]

OUTSTANDING!

 

Awesome review, both in content and form.

 

Dave

[moray james]

those are great amps, I have had three sets over the years still have a modified pair. In Japan the 6BM8 is venerated in much the same way that the 300B is here in NA. Great deal for a very fine set of eight watt mono blocks. Good luck with your sale and congrats in advance to the lucky guy who scores these fine amplifiers. Best regards Moray James.

Edited October 18, 2014 by moray james

[joessportster]

Very Nice offering indeed

[justinsweber]

Thanks for the kind words. After the choke install, new shielded inout and tubes. This anp realy really sings. More musical than I expected for sure.

[jimjimbo]

Justin, if I didn't already have your awesome Stereo 15 SE, I would buy these.  What a deal.

[minermark]

Very nice, simple and clean, about once a month someones chimes in looking for this type of Amp.

Ill bump this upon seeing it in the next few weeks.

This would be a great pair for a youngin getting their first set of mono blocks.

[justinsweber]

Hey Everybody,

 

I’m sure I’m not alone in having way way too much equipment. The Waves were built to flip. I thought @ $240 they were a good buy but to make them perform well enough for me to sell with my name attached required bench testing/rewring, new coupling caps installed correctly, and some added iron. The 8-10 watts really provides a great deal of headroom for those that consider SE amps impractical.

Using the absolute sound descriptions for sound quality Id place the Wave closer to the sounds fun (musical sounding) than accurate or overly bloomed in the mid range… its sort of an all a rounder in the same way a W5/ or Magnavox tube amp is… Similar to the 6v6 sound… maybe I’m just describing the pentode sound.

 

 I’m awash in amps... I have my Dynaco MKIIIs, my personal headphone amp, and my new mono blocks all as spares not to mention my some others and amps built for customers :-).

 

My 2yo has adopted the guest room as hers’ and so I’m losing the bonus room storage. Its a curious thing how life realigns around new properties.

[Colin]

$400!!!

 

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0302/aslwave8.htm

[justinsweber]

I'm not sure they were ever $100 but they represent a fantastic value. I've seen them on eBay for about 120-150 each. The choke, and shielded inout cable were the most signifiscnt improvements. The rest was basic stuff anyone should consider a must when buying. New tubes and a bench test. I think the wave 8s are like the S5 amps in their value.

[Daddy Dee]

Justin, these look great. thank you for not posting any pictures of these amps with naked tubes.  

 

I know they sound must be very fine for you to associate your name with them. 

 

a great deal for some one

 

I'm not a tech type, to understand sensitivity and such. 

 

Any particular fave or recommendation for preamp?

Edited October 21, 2014 by Daddy Dee

[Schu]

 

[justinsweber]

^{Daddy Dee and everyone, thanks for the kinds words... The amps found a good home last night. The Individual purchased the Wave 8s and my Econowaves which seemed to have good synergy to them. I’ve bought an Eastern Electric amp (minimax I will be listed next, but waiting for new tubes). The 6MB8 is really an interesting tube… I haven’t seen a SE circuit for them, but imagine a single tube circuit would be really quite and fun to pull off. All the selling of misc stuff is me getting ready to do a refresh to my site… lowered prices and will finally be showing off my summertime projects. We completed a solid walnut MTM and am doing final assembly this week. Made some tchotchke speakers made from cigar and scotch boxes. Have some specialty switches and alike. I actually have some black Plexiglas coming in so I can take pics that look as nice as Decwares.}

^{Regarding preamp recommendations:}

^{•               The ground grid pre seems amazing… perhaps too neutral for me.}

^{•               Love the Dynaco “Tube” sound but hate 50yo preamps… built with new parts… as a kit the dynakitparts.com pas-3 is pretty amazing. VTA pres sound great… I hate that they don’t have part values printed on the PCB… additionally they use a lot of silicone for regulation.}

^{I have a formula I’ve used with great result… which is a Dynaco PC-5 line stage PCB (ebay ~$60 stuffed to the door), (Tubes for pro C.Chart Chong power supply stuffed(~$50) and a Triode electronics power transformers. Alps 25K pot and a Greyhill input switch (3 inputs). Chassis is Par-metal (ebay) different sizes. I like the 12”x12”x4’ for a pre.The PAS3 has a terrible phono stage… so I just build this as a line stage. I can post if requested the modifications I make to the PC-5 PCB… remove C1 DC blocking and 2 resistors if I remember correctly. Additionally I need to add a resistor to the filaments to get the voltages just right. All in its about $200-$250 in parts… 100% serviceable and will provide great soundstage and soften any SS amplification used.}

[Matthews]

I want these!!!

 

   - ARRRGGHHH - new RCD-1072 as planned or some SWEET & SEXY TUBES???

[Matthews]

whoops - gone...

Edited October 22, 2014 by Matthews

[mike stehr]

The 6MB8 is really an interesting tube… I haven’t seen a SE circuit for them, but imagine a single tube circuit would be really quite and fun to pull off.

 

That would be a "Spud" amplifier. I dunno about 6BM8, but there is a few SE circuits with regard to ECL86/6GW8.

 

http://www.tubebooks.org/tubedata/HB-3/Receiving_Tubes_Part_2/6GW8_ECL86.PDF