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Should I bother? Beginner tube amp question...


jtnfoley

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OK I guess I will either make someones point or dispell someones point, maybe both.

I have been thinking of doing something with a small tube amp. I have worked with AC and DC power for many years I know the danger of Caps, and CRT's and I understand why they store power. That being said do tubes store power? If so which tubes and why? Does something else involved store power, that I have yet to consider??

Now the important question, weather I am looking a kit of old or new tube amps, will 8Watts drive my Khorns?? If so will 4 Watts??

Next Will a kit (like the $185 suggested sound like an old tube amp, and will they sound like a baby sophia???

As always I am looking for "bang for my buck"

Last but not least is there a simple way to switch my khors from HT solid state to stereo tube and back again? Should I make some female banana plug pass thru blocks to use as quick connects??

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OK I guess I will either make someones point or dispell someones point, maybe both.

I have been thinking of doing something with a small tube amp. I have worked with AC and DC power for many years I know the danger of Caps, and CRT's and I understand why they store power. That being said do tubes store power? If so which tubes and why? Does something else involved store power, that I have yet to consider??

Now the important question, weather I am looking a kit of old or new tube amps, will 8Watts drive my Khorns?? If so will 4 Watts??

Next Will a kit (like the $185 suggested sound like an old tube amp, and will they sound like a baby sophia???

As always I am looking for "bang for my buck"

Last but not least is there a simple way to switch my khors from HT solid state to stereo tube and back again? Should I make some female banana plug pass thru blocks to use as quick connects??

Personally, I know of no audio tubes that store power after being shut off. The only thing I can think of that stores power after shutdown is electrolytic capacitors. Some amplifiers have a bleeder resistor in the power supply that drain this voltage to ground when the amp is shut down. Even then, a capacitor can still build up a charge just sitting. I'm sure you are aware of that.

To drain a charge from a capacitor, you can take a 1000 ohm resistor of around 3-5 watts and short the terminals to ground.

You can run Khorns from a watt and a half. Factors are how large your room is, and how loud you like to listen at. If you want to go full boogie and crank metal 100db for hours on end, then 4 watts won't cut it. I listen to a single-ended Magnavox EL-84 console amp at 4-5 wpc in a smaller room with LaScalas. It gets loud enough to do me fine.

If you concerned about bang for the buck, and not afraid to DIY, then don't waste your money on that $185 kit or the Baby Sophia. You could sink 50-60 bucks into that Stromberg Carlson single-ended 7408/6V6 console amplifier with a rework, and come out with a better amp than the 185 dollar kit or a baby sophia. That's JMHO.....

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I just typed in Stromberg Carlson SE 6V6 amplifier on a google search. There is a site dedicated to Stromberg Carlson called "Made in Rochester." That's how I found the model #.

Good to see you found a better schematic, the one I found was kinda lame. But it ws just a quick search....

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I just typed in Stromberg Carlson SE 6V6 amplifier on a google search. There is a site dedicated to Stromberg Carlson called "Made in Rochester." That's how I found the model #.

Good to see you found a better schematic, the one I found was kinda lame. But it ws just a quick search....

I actually found the Made In Rochester site when I was googling SC stuff when I first spotted the craigslist ad. There's a bunch of great stuff, including that -120 PDF (which contains full schematics and parts for the -110, -120, and -130, and the FM tuner.)

There are DejaVu format files (the excellent graphics viewer and manipulation tool Irfanview can open them) with REALLY nice consoles, including the bigger models with the -333, -433, and -444 amps. I was hoping for one of those when I answered the ad, but I'll be happy with the -110 as a learning experience!

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I had a Stromberg ASR 433 if memory serves. My Dynaco was better (in my very humble opinion). But I did sell it to Japan when I sold it because they want the iron. It would be fun to pull it out and upgrade some of the parts just to see what you ended up with. I would be willing to bet with spec and upgraded parts it could sound pretty decent. Replace that can cap first thing!

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If you concerned about bang for the buck, and not afraid to DIY, then don't waste your money on that $185 kit or the Baby Sophia. You could sink 50-60 bucks into that Stromberg Carlson single-ended 7408/6V6 console amplifier with a rework, and come out with a better amp than the 185 dollar kit or a baby sophia.

Where might I start my search for one of these??

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If you concerned about bang for the buck, and not afraid to DIY, then don't waste your money on that $185 kit or the Baby Sophia. You could sink 50-60 bucks into that Stromberg Carlson single-ended 7408/6V6 console amplifier with a rework, and come out with a better amp than the 185 dollar kit or a baby sophia.

Where might I start my search for one of these??

Brac, I'm totally sorry.....I mistoke you for jtnfoley, the other poster whose thinking of purchasing a Stromberg Carlson console stereo. I suppose I better pay more attention to those screen names and avatars. oops...

I dunno.....I think the cheapest way to get into a tube amplifier is finding some old stereo tube console, and pinch the amplifier to make it into a stand alone amplifier. It doesn't have to be a Stromberg Carlson brand.

Magnavox, Motorola, RCA, and various other brands would work as well.

Lurk your local CL, or newspaper for estate sales. Pick a price budget.

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The SC I found is the bottom of the line as early 60's Stromberg consoles go... That notwithstanding, I'm going to do it. Fifty bucks, picking it up tonight.

Definately lurk on your local CL.... don't forget to search in the "free stuff" category! Others I've found candidate consoles are (paraphrasing) "electronics," "furniture," "CDs DVDs VHS," and "collectibles"

Make sure you use the subcategories listed above... if you search for "stereo console" you'll get about 10,000 hits for cars! [:)]

I'm still going to keep my eyes open for SC consoles: Some were extrordinary. Notably those with ASR-333, ASR-433, and ASR-444 amps. Check the Made In Rochester site for more info.

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These have been popular -- DIY projects from Angela Instruments. Also a good source for parts. From the attached link, scroll to: The How To Section for some other examples of SE 6V6 using more common input/driver triodes and tube rectification. A stereo amplifier could be built from scratch for a little over $200.00 or so.

Do note they include a word of caution. This is building completely from scratch, which might be something after a restoration project, or two. I've gotten parts from them in the past, and they've always been good to work with.

Erik

http://www.angela.com/

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