Setting up the Custom Dynaco ST-70's - Help!!

[Daddy Dee]

Thanks for posting on the ST-70. Sounds like it was a great family time, too. That's the really cool part.

[Audible Nectar]

"LISTENED TO DIRE STRAITS "BROTHERS IN ARMS" DVD-A..........

MY WIFE ACTUALLY GOT GOOSEBUMPS. SHE WAS AMAZED AT THE DIFFERENCE IN SOUND."

Sounds like my wife last week when breaking in the rebuilt 30s - same title, too. She's learning - FAST. "NOW I know why you went through all that....." Uh-huh. Ain't tubes GREAT???? Hehehehe...........

[Me Loves Khorns]

I realize it is an entry level tube setup. I wanted to make sure I liked the sound in my house, of course I liked it in Hope.

My wife actually said last night: I cannot believe all that improvement with a $550 amp!!!

She now wants me to keep on looking for/ planning for a more high end amp later on to put up on the front two channels, and move this one to the surrounds, the den, or our 12 year old's room...

Man, I know I've said it before, but how lucky am I to have a wife that is begging me to get my entire surround system all hooked up with tubes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I do have a McIntosh surround 6 ch. amp coming in (used) for surround duties, I realize that tubes are not practicle for watching regular tv, xbox, and such.

So, I guess you guys should put me on the list for being solidly in the tube camp. At least with my Khorns and listening preferences, there ain't nuttin better!

Paul

[Duke Spinner]

can you damage tubes by playing them before they are hooked up.

Carefull ...

Damage ....???You Bet ..

they can Arc over internally

Smoke, toated screen resistors ..is just the start

Where the hell did you get this information from??? Tube amplifiers can play music within a minute or so of being turned on. It probably is not advisable to turn it up as loud as it can play until warmed up but your statements are silly. The only reason it takes a minute or so is the voltage has to rise enough for it to actually work.

Craig

Apparently ..You didn't read the Question Carefully... Craig

" BEFORE THEY ARE HOOKED UP"

certainly You must have seen a EL-34 flash over before, from an OPEN OUTPUT CIRCUT

[Duke Spinner]

RIGHT ...???

[NOSValves]

Apparently ..You didn't read the Question Carefully... Craig

" BEFORE THEY ARE HOOKED UP"

certainly You must have seen a EL-34 flash over before, from an OPEN OUTPUT CIRCUT

Ahh now I see what you mean! Yea in general most tubes amps should not be playing music without a speaker load attached to the outputs.

But I still don't think that is what he meant. I think he had every intention of hooking every thing up before playing music. What would be the point of pumping music into the amp without speakers?

Craig

[ssh]

Congratulations, Paul!

You were nibbleing before, but the hook is set, now.[]

SSH

[Duke Spinner]

.

But I still don't think that is what he meant. I think he had every intention of hooking every thing up before playing music. What would be the point of pumping music into the amp without speakers?

Craig

I only know what He wrote ....

[Me Loves Khorns]

Yeah,

my bad on the question. What I meant to type was: is it bad to play them before they are WARMED UP, NOT HOOKED UP.

Obviously, they are all hooked up before trying to play them.

Is it OK to just turn em on, turn the rest of the gear on the start playing them. I know they will sound better once they are warmed up.

[Clarence]

I usually turned on the tubes, got my music selection ready, and then turned on the pre and the source. (5 min)

Glad you are enjoying it!

[Coytee]

She now wants me to keep on looking for/ planning for a more high end amp later on to put up on the front two channels, and move this one to the surrounds, the den, or our 12 year old's room...

Man, I know I've said it before, but how lucky am I to have a wife that is begging me to get my entire surround system all hooked up with tubes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul

Don't forget the rumor about those two MC-30's you heard in Hope still being available...[A]

Actually, as I type that I'm thinking I should at least try them on the K402's & see how they compare. With that said, the rumor is still out there.

As for the wife begging you for the tubes and all!!!: Priceless!!!!

I think it's great it's coming together for you.

[Me Loves Khorns]

Hey, what about the rumor of the rumor about the MC (is it the 2102?, you know, the big daddy with the blue eyes and window to see the tubes thru?

You were thinking about bringing it to Hope. I think you even got an offer for $400 if I remember correctly. I would love to buy it for, say, $800. I just doubled your orig. offer, you should consider it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me in on the latest rumors. Also, I don't see the MC 30' s on Audiogon anymore

Paul

[Coytee]

The A-gon listing expired. Only had a single inquiry.

I've still got the MC30's. I think (understandably) that not too many were interested in them given I was asking a reasonable amount for them (however, it's what I've got in them to the penny AND they've already been gone through by Terry DeWick... maybe others here can vouch for who Terry is so I won't seem like I'm name dropping) So they are truely not only "plug & play" (something an A-gonner might not belive 100%) but as you saw, they're fairly pretty too. Again, a side comment by Terry was they were among the prettiest he's seen. He made that comment to me PRIOR to my buying them and frankly, was the reason I bought them blind (his vouching for everything the seller told me as being true).

None the less, strangers on the net don't have any reason to belive what I was saying and I'm fine with that.

They're still sitting on my fireplace. I don't think they've been hooked up since they were hooked up to some dudes Khorns in a far away place....[]

I have debated on selling them, using them... or just keep them in a closet somewhere and I don't think that's right either.

The reasons they're probably on the block first (over the MC-2102) are several.

1. I LOVEEEEEEEEEEe the looks of the 2102, plain & simple.

2. The 2102 has an OFF knob (the 30's don't)

3. This is a longer comment:

In order for the Jubilees to do what they're supposed to do, I guess I need to get them the best signal that I can.

As it is, let's count how many individual gain knobs I have in the food chain:

Peach has 2 gain knobs

Transformer box to convert to balanced cables has 2 gain knobs

MC-30's have 2 gain knobs (1 on each amp)

EV has 2 master gain knobs

EV also has individual gain knobs for each driver (four)

So, before I add in my dbx amp for the LF section (one of which has FOUR gains), I'm already up to 12 different knobs, 6 for each channel and frankly, that's 6 too many in my book!!! Way too many variables for me.

If I use the dbx BX3 amp, then add in four more...no, change that... add in two more for stereo use and I'm up to 14 gain knobs, 7 for each channel.

So if I simply try to start eliminating gain knobs, then the MC30's are viable choices to go as is the dbx BX3 amp.

I also LOVEEEEEEEEEEe the looks of that 2102!!! I was smitten the first time I saw it on the showroom floor.

I really need to hook the 30's up and see if I find any astounding difference between them and the 2102. If I do then I guess I should pay attention to that. If I don't, then I'm kind of nuts to simply put them into hiding.

Tell ya what, for my own exercise and experiment, I'll try to hook them up tonight if I can. Wife is home so it might be later in week. I guess I really should make a clean emotional break as to if I really "want" to sell them or not. (I don't "want" to but think I should which is why I'm so darn conflicted)

None the less, then if anyone has any further interest I won't sound so wishy washy.

If you realize I decided to buy the Jubilees after about a 3 minute audition, you might better understand the conflict I have on selling these because I simply can not make my mind up in any conclusive way.

As for your (overly) generious offer of $800 on the 2102, you can rest assured that you ARE on top of my consideration pile [] I was going to try to pin you down for $400 and your old Bose speakers...[6]

[SilverSport]

Alright then...here's an unsolicited vouch for Mr. Terry DeWick (DeWickt here on the forum)...if Terry went through them they are as good or better than when they left Binghampton, NY...McIntoshland!...Terry is aces, top notch and inexpensive...things that don't usually go together (but many here seem to be like this as well!)

Enjoy!

Bill

[TommyK]

Paul, the biggest jump has been made. That is to say going to a push-pull tube into a Horn is a sound that some people (like me) love. The *upgrades* you can make in amps from here will be incremental and improve certain things, but don't hold your breathe hoping to recreate the jump you just made.

Its like the first time you down shift a 1972 911 into tight turn and accelerate out after you've been driving muscle cars. Buying a new 911 (for 20x the dough) isn't going to be all that better in recreating that feeling: the magic is in the slant six rear wheel drive 5 speed.

Your Dynaco is like a 1966 912. Underpowered on the low end? yes. Are there better amps? Yes. But for recreating that **feeling**, you have to spend a lot more, and really only get an improvement on how it sits in traffic. And even then, for all the improvement, you lose a little of the feeling of the road.

The two preamps I'd recommend to further the **feeling would be to get a Dynaco PAS and mod it with the Curio mods. There is a good forum for Dynaco on the AA website. Or, spend up now and get a McIntosh C22 and never have to worry that there is a better sounding preamp out there for recreating that special magic a KHorn can recreate.

Peace, TommyK

[Coytee]

Thank you for that Bill... and with that said, I'll toss out another side story.

I had been to see Terry once/twice so I knew who he was and he'd helped me on this & that. He lives something like 5-7 miles from my work.

Enter my foray into McIntosh and having a question on the 2102. I called McIntosh in NY and got ahold of their technical questions guy. Ok...got that? I'm calling the FACTORY who MADE the darn unit and get the tech guy? got it? I wasn't calling Ghostbusters!

Gave him my question(s) and he hemmed & hawed a bit. (side note, out of old work habits, I'll many times introduce myself as "Richard in Knoxville" for various reasons, I think I did that here)

He asked me again..."where did you say you are from"? I answered Knoxville and he then floored me by asking me "Do you know Terry DeWick? He lives there in Knoxville?"

"Yes I do know him"

"Well, you'd be a lot better off asking that question to Terry as he's a lot more up on that kind of thing than I am" (I forget the question I asked him)

I was floored...

Here I am talking to the tech guy at the FACTORY who made the darn thing and he's sending me off to someone ELSE???

I thought that was pretty strong! That was ALL the endorsement I ever thought to need for Terry. (although I was already happy with what he'd done previously)

So, yeah... Terry DeWick is DaMan!

[Tarheel]

Brothers In Arms.....Good selection Paul. What digital player are you using?

I have heard some say that two many tube components in a system is overkill but I use a tube preamp, tube horn mono amps, and a tube output Jolida CD player. Sounds mighty sweet to me! The CD player made the biggest impact though the Denon it replaced was 20 years old. Old CDs before 24 bit processing still sound pretty lifeless even on a good player. I like to buy the digitally remastered CDs such as Brothers In Arms.

Enjoy the Dynacos!

Tarheel