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Alan Eaton 45 Monos with Heresy


angelaudio

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Having had the fortunate opportunity to work with lots of tube amps and solid state amps, I had a chance to spend a few days with the Alan Eaton 45 integrated tube amp at 1.5 watts per channel and ended up buying the Alan Eaton 45 monos at 3 watts per channel (video links below). May not seem like much power but I'll tried to put matters into perspective. Everyone's room is different, so what works for me may not work for you. It amazes me how long people are waiting on Decware, yet have no idea about Alan Eaton's incredible work which was also discussed on the Glow in the Dark audio site . The main reason is because of the popularity of Steve Guttenberg's Decware Zen reviews combined with increased sales from the pandemic. Regardless, these monos are the finest amps I've ever used regardless of cost and they drive the Heresy beautifully!

 

Edited by angelaudio
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Thanks for the great review. I have a pair of Cornwall v4’s driven by a NAD C368 with an Apple TV source. We listen to music but the system is our daily TV and movies setup. I’m interested in the Alan Eaton 45 monos, but don’t know what to do for the preamp or DAC. Any suggestions? I’m open to the 45 Integrated if that makes sense. Side question, it wasn’t clear in the video, does the Integrated have a unified volume?

 

Thanks for your time. 

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Hi Guys, sorry for the delay, I've been away. I'm angelaudio but listed under two user names because of a password nightmare which I explained in earlier posts FYI. Links are here. Alan only sells on ebay or a customer can text. Yea, I currently have the monos and they're absolutely sublime. My friend got the monos after hearing mine. I also still have several other amps and switch them out for a different sound signature sometimes. As I've listened more, I prefer the monos over my Decware Zen in fact my friend who also has the 45 single and monos just cancelled his Decware Zen order which was due in about two weeks. All the hype from these big youtubers has people sadly in a trance they don't need to be in.  They can get an alan eaton amp in about a month which is far better than 9 months on Decware and the only reason is because of all the hype on youtube. What blows me away is how experienced these big youtubers are and they haven't even heard alan eaton amps or decare amps, it's incredible to me. To me it just means they're consumed by marketing for these companies and they're making bucks off their reviews. As far as Dacs I'm using the Schiit multibit and the Ares II. Either is fine and there's probably other good ones but I don't think DAC's make that huge a difference at least to my ears. As far as the volume on the monos I have them attached to an Erhard Aretha tube preamp with the volume settings set on each mono at about 65% otherwise you just use each volume control on either of Alan's amps to control each side which I actually prefer over a one volume. This is because of the reasons I mentioned in the video regarding some jazz recordings. Also, having balance control isn't my favorite because it cuts the volume down on the opposite side. As far as how loud the monos get, I think I measured something like 100db on the meter but I don't play music loud unless it's Albert King or Stevie Rey for example. In all, I love these tube amps but if others want true, honest reviews go to Kevin's glow in the dark audio site linked below. This guy totally knows what he's talking about and he's not consumed by the marketing. As you can see I'm not a fan of marketing. 

Regards,

---daniel

 

http://glowinthedarkaudio.com/alan-eaton-se45.html

 

https://www.ebay.com/usr/eclectic_electrics?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

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11 hours ago, Acoustic_4me said:

I just bought a pair of Alan Eton 45 monos.  Anxiously awaiting their arrival. I own a SE84UFO2. Speaker are Lii audio 15" full range drivers in my version of Decware ZF15M open baffle full range speakers. Looking forward to comparing the 2 amplifiers.


Congrats. You’ll like the 45’s better. Overall, better spatial separation in the music and better bass along with additional power and kick. Really musical in good ways and I like them more than my Decware Zen. Great setup with the 15’s I’m building a special pair myself right now. 

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The 45 directly heated triode is one of the most amazing tubes out there which is why it is one of my personal favorites of all time.

 

I like the simplicity of the Alan Eaton 45 amp and it has a classic DHT amplifier sound to it but there is major room for improvement. I know what you are going to say, simple is best and I agree with you 100% but hear me out first before scolding me.

 

The 45 triode like many popular vintage tubes are dwindling fast and the nicest specimens are starting to cost a lot to purchase. Luckily they are currently making new 45 tubes but the good ones are quite expensive also. My thing, get your hands on some NOS and in a well designed amplifier will last a very long time if not your whole life. Any major piece of laboratory equipment that needs to power filaments, lets use a mass spectrometer for example will use a constant current source for power. Why because the replacement parts are expensive and they do not need their expensive lab equipment to break all for a simple filament blowing open like a light bulb Almost all failures I see from DHT audio tubes is in the filament. When it is not powered up and cold the resistance is really low, when hit with a voltage source it will draw a huge in rush current which damages the filament eventually burning open the weakest spot in the filament causing the poor tube to be thrown away with plenty of emissions left, just sad to me. A constant current source keeps the current constant and voltage changes with resistance, so as the filament gets hotter and increases it's resistance the current source too increases voltage to keep the current constant keeping tubes happy and healthy and so you will not have to throw a lovely rare DHT in the trash prematurely. This is nothing that will drastically drive the cost of the amplifier up, maybe $20 in parts we are talking about.

 

Driving a DHT.

 

What do I mean by that? Many of the DHT tube require a fair amount of swing to reach full power, say 100v peak to peak compared to an EL84 which is more like 20v peak to peak. But, more importantly with such low powered amplifiers is transients often swing the output triode close or past 0v grid voltage which draws grid current. The whole AC coupling between stages causes a bias shift and blocking distortion, not great for hifi audio. So you want a low impedance circuit which can deliver current to the 45 control grid. The most popular method in the days where these tubes ruled the world was an interstage transformer which Alan Eaton chooses not to use, he AC couples the stages via a capacitor which causes the aforementioned issues during transients. The other issue is the large swing needed to drive them will make the amplifier already have excessive distortion in the driver stage alone where most amplifiers the majority of distortion is from the output stage. Now I am not a person that requires in the parts per millionth (10^-6) distortion figures but I still like to keep hifi amplifiers clean, say between .1-1% THD at full power mostly second harmonic sounds great and anything more will muddy the sound with complex music.

 

Another problem is output impedance, most of these DHT amplifiers just cannot properly drive our beloved Klipsch loudspeakers, the high output Z just follows the impedance curve and many times with non horn loaded woofers types like Heresy's cannot control the woofer properly.

 

The amp was lovely with simple music, jazz trios, piano, vocal, chamber etc.. all were lovely but when we tried playing pop music, anything from Jay-Z to Pantera, Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Pink Floyd to Beastie Boys the amp just did not hold up well.

 

 

 

 

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42 minutes ago, captainbeefheart said:

The amp was lovely with simple music, jazz trios, piano, vocal, chamber etc.. all were lovely but when we tried playing pop music, anything from Jay-Z to Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Pink Floyd to Beastie Boys the amp just did not hold up well.

 

 

 

 

 

I think this last paragraph summarizes the issue with a lot of the amps that are recommended. I hope others realize these 45's are not meant for rocking the house down nor would I care. I don't really see why others would be so concerned about using these amazing sounding tubes amps to listen for music like Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Pink Floyd to Beastie Boys in the first place. Just get a strong SS amp for that kind of music if that's what others like. The whole idea of using these 45's is in order to appreciate music exactly like jazz trios, piano, vocal, chamber etc which is precisely what the vast majority of my listening is.  For rocking out, my VTA-ST70 or ST-120 SS here is great for rocking out. 

 

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32 minutes ago, Idontknow said:

 

I think this last paragraph summarizes the issue with a lot of the amps that are recommended. I hope others realize these 45's are not meant for rocking the house down nor would I care. I don't really see why others would be so concerned about using these amazing sounding tubes amps to listen for music like Michael Jackson to Nirvana, Pink Floyd to Beastie Boys in the first place. Just get a strong SS amp for that kind of music if that's what others like. The whole idea of using these 45's is in order to appreciate music exactly like jazz trios, piano, vocal, chamber etc which is precisely what the vast majority of my listening is.  For rocking out, my VTA-ST70 or ST-120 SS here is great for rocking out. 

 

 

It is not difficult to make a 45 amp that can deliver the goods with complex music but unfortunately the vast majority of builders just copy old schematics and feel that the 45 tube amp has to have these cons which sadly isn't true. What you want to look for primarily is a SET amp that operates in Class A2 mode, this is a huge advantage. Also many that build these amps are scared of feedback, but just a little bit of properly applied feedback will not ruin the sonics and bring the performance level up to where complex music can be appreciated and also have a damping factor >100 to boot. But sadly many just do not put forth the extra effort to address these issues but when you do find one it is the best of both worlds.

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Regardless of what an optimal 45 amp might be, there are some technical terms that are almost treated like religion. E.g. (negative) feedback sounds "very" negative, analog treble and bass filter (a mortal sin), Class A (the circuit of the gods) biwiring, for some a noble enhancement for others (me too) a deterioration of the timing and the attacks. Paper-oil-silver capacitors...illustrious magic stones that fair maidens have wound in the moonlight. Air chokes...through them the sound inhales the breath of angels.

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21 minutes ago, Idontknow said:

I don’t get into the specs. I read Kevin’s reviews at glow in the dark audio because he’s a real listener. I just set up the units and listen. Not interested in specs or urban myths. I’ll leave that to the fanboys. 

 

When you have been into this hobby both as a listener and as an engineer as long as I have you end up with a pretty good idea of what you like and don't like. I have had the pleasure of hearing lots of systems and all kinds of different gear. Understanding the technology in and out also helps me weed out amps so I spend less time trying out different amplifiers and more time listening. I don't expect the average person to learn theory and study circuits and topology but that is what I am interested in so I get into deeper than many.

 

Specs can be deceiving but also can tell you a lot if you know how to interpret them. High power at low distortion just doesn't tell you much about how it will sound so diving deeper into details is the only way for me to really weed out amps I will audition or build. Let's face it there are A LOT of options with many "fanboy's" in their respective corners peddling their wares. 

 

One thing that always bothered me about the Alan Eaton 45 amp is there is a 6SN7 each per channel yet he only uses one triode inside the envelope per channel. Using that other section that is already there and being wasted as a follower to drive the 45 into A2 operation would be quite easy and drastically improve the amp's performance. Or at the very least just tie the two sections in parallel to reduce noise and  output impedance. Or if you really  just want the circuit exactly as it is just use a single 6J5GT per channel which is the same as a 6SN7 just one section per bottle, no wasting a nice matched 6SN7 to only have half of it wear out from use and the other triode is still new strong condition. Such a waste IMHO

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1 hour ago, captainbeefheart said:

 

When you have been into this hobby both as a listener and as an engineer as long as I have you end up with a pretty good idea of what you like and don't like. I have had the pleasure of hearing lots of systems and all kinds of different gear. Understanding the technology in and out also helps me weed out amps so I spend less time trying out different amplifiers and more time listening. I don't expect the average person to learn theory and study circuits and topology but that is what I am interested in so I get into deeper than many.

 

Specs can be deceiving but also can tell you a lot if you know how to interpret them. High power at low distortion just doesn't tell you much about how it will sound so diving deeper into details is the only way for me to really weed out amps I will audition or build. Let's face it there are A LOT of options with many "fanboy's" in their respective corners peddling their wares. 

 

One thing that always bothered me about the Alan Eaton 45 amp is there is a 6SN7 each per channel yet he only uses one triode inside the envelope per channel. Using that other section that is already there and being wasted as a follower to drive the 45 into A2 operation would be quite easy and drastically improve the amp's performance. Or at the very least just tie the two sections in parallel to reduce noise and  output impedance. Or if you really  just want the circuit exactly as it is just use a single 6J5GT per channel which is the same as a 6SN7 just one section per bottle, no wasting a nice matched 6SN7 to only have half of it wear out from use and the other triode is still new strong condition. Such a waste IMHO

 

What amps do you like?

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