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Need Advice from the Tube Gurus out there


kevinmi

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I took out my VTA-ST-120 amp which has vintage Tung-Sol 6550 tubes in it, and replaced it with my Decware El-84 mono block amps. The sound is obviously different, going from 60 watts/channel to 5 watts. This got me thinking about how different tubes and amp designs might sound. I know the sound is completely subjective, but I was just wondering what other people have found out to be the most pleasing tube sound. I'm using the amps to drive my modded K-Horns.

  Please chime in with your opinions! 

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19 minutes ago, NOSValves said:

I bet the Decware is much easier to listen too for hours on end. What Decware exactly are you using that is 5 watts? I thought the EL84 triode amps they produced were less than 3 WPC ?

Hi Craig, the Decware units are the SE-84 kits. I built 2 of them and have them bridged to put out about 5.8 watts each. I've never had any listening fatigue with either setup, but I don't usually listen to music for more than an hour or two at a time.

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56 minutes ago, NOSValves said:

Have ever tried dumping the bridge configuration and just run one of those Decwares? I myself have never been a fan of bridging two channel together...

I've done that before, but I think I'll try it again since I don't remember how it sounded.

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Agreeing with Craig, here.  I've used the above triodes in different configurations for a long time, and yeah, they can be great -- but consider also the circuit; there is more to just the output device used.

 

Single-ended EL 84s can sound amazing with Klipschorns.  I did that for a long time too, and IMO gives the far more costly big triodes a real run for the money.  I have some insanely expensive 2A3s and 300Bs, and love the the El 84.

 

PS:  my wife bought me a Decware mini-Tori a few years back, one of the few amps I didn't build myself.  It uses single-ended 6V6s (or others in that family), and while a great little amp, I recently bought some nice OPTs with UL taps at 40%, and also mades some other small changes, including feedback removal (just my preference). Those old triodes are nice -- particularly in a parallel-feed application -- but consider some others too!

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Currently have SET Amps that use 845, 300B and 2A3 output tubes and a SEP amp that uses the EL84.

 

The SET amps are beautiful sounding amps - each in their own way..

 

The Almarro A205a SEP EL84 amp also sounds wonderful and can definitely run with the big dogs.

 

I would try using one unbridged Decware EL84 amp, as was suggested.

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