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What are the most important parts to upgrade a 2A3 amp? The output transformer or the caps? What is the best tube?
Depends on what transformer, cap, or tubes you're currently using. I've never built a Bottlehead kit, so I'm not sure what the stock components are like.
I don't know what kind of transformers are used either. People talk about upgrading to a Magnequest output transformer, that it's better. I don't know how much better though or the difference in cost between transformers in general. The caps in the power supply are electrolytics, the parafeed cap is made by Sprague. All resistors are made by Xicom.
A zillion answers on the Bottlehead Forum but you're here, so what the heck. My experience with the 'Mours is that given the C4S, the output caps are #1 and Auricaps were great followed by Clarity. Surpriisng, the little coupling cap was a noticeable upgrade as well even tho an afterthought and all I did was replace the ceramic with a Solen. Based on my experience with adding a choke to Ella, I think the BC-15 choke upgrade will be VERY good, replacing the whatchacallit resitor with the stock choke. After all that, I feel that that the S.E.T. crowd is kidding itself with all this "palpable presence" stuff. These little designs roll off the treble and smear the mids so wacky speakers like Fostex and their ilk don't sound so bad. Gimme 40 or 60 Manly Push Pull EL-34 watts as G-D and Williamson intended!
Go to the K&K forumn and research PP all transformer choke loaded amps with good iron. Parafeed uses that big cap in the splitter that ruins everything! Many SE amps sound like crap, oops the Emporer is naked! I know I own one! I admitted it now it is time to get real, push pull all the way, Lundahl Iron. At least 20 watts triode.
Well, my amp collection includes a few el34 designs, dynas, SET's and a couple of PP el34's. If clean power is what you want then the Berning zh270 can put 100w into 2ohms at 2 hz. Still the best sound I get is the 45 tube driven by 801 and a parafeed preamp with HG rectifiers. Nothing wrong with PP el34's. But they're no contender for single ended done right. Actually for SE sound with big balls I lash the 10y parafeed preamp to the Berning, SET sweetness and the power of the sun. Sounds great with my wacky Fostex designs. TC
And everytime I hear the Bottlehead stuff I am impressed. But then they almost always have the right speakers hooked to them. Try the Tj meshplate 2a3, maybe change the bias for 45 tube operation. Next amps on my list of must haves are P-Mour's. Less is Mour! TC
I really like the Paramours too. Plus Dan is a great guy. I'm probably going to try some Electro-Harmonix tubes, but maybe TJ's or Sovteks or something else. But I love the cool blue glow of the inexpensive Valve Arts that come with the kit, and they sound good too when they don't click. One of my Valve Art 2A3's clicks, and the problem is definitely in the tube - Symptoms follow the tube when swapped between amps. And the feedback I've gotten from others is that this is a common symptom that appears in about 50% of the Valve Art 2A3 tubes sampled(!) I wish that weren't the case 'cause I like their sound and love that blue glow.
Hey Wayne, my Electro-Harmonix 2A3 tubes have that cool blue glow. They didn't at first, but the do now. Try them, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
Thanks for the tip about Electro-Harmonix 2A3 tubes. I'll order a pair today and give them a try. Where did you order yours? If I can order online, I'll make a few clicks and get them on their way right now.
HI Wayne, I got them at the Tube Store; $89.95 for a matched pair. http://thetubestore.com/index.html
I've got a pair coming. Thanks for the tip and for the link to the online tube store. TheTubeStore.com
I've ordered from these guys several times and they're great. I like them even more because they're Canadian.
I received my pair of Electro-Harmonix 2A3 Gold tubes today. I'm so busy I barely had time to write this post, and so I haven't plugged 'em in yet. But I'll surely do that at some point this weekend and then I'll write back. Thanks again Seeker for the suggestion.
These are the changes I put amps through: (1) The .1uf metallized polypro interstage coupling cap was my first stop. Doubled up to .22uf for starters, tried VTV silver PIO caps first, but ended up with Audio Note copper foil PIO's. (No cries of "Foul!" please. I don't distribute the parts. In North America PartsConnexion.com sells them.) (2) In my case, the iron underwent a wholesale change next. (If I were to do it again, I might do the third step 2nd.) The parafeed OPTs were replaced by a pair of nickel MQ's. I upgraded the parafeed chokes as well, again with MQ's goodies. This yielded a spare pair of chokes which can be directly subbed for the big-ass 1.2kohm 10w wire wound resistors. A no cost upgrade which yields much smoother, more refined sound. (3) The 3.3uf parafeed caps went next. Again, metallized polypro are not the nicest sounding caps, but they are cost effective. In my case, I scored a pair of Western Electric PIO caps from Mike Lefevre while he was in a garage-cleaning frenzy. ;-0 Note: Early on, I had subbed Black Gate caps into the PS. Heard next to nothing, which is assuredly NOT the case in other applications. The parafeed topology seems to minimize the sonic effect of PS cap choices. I wouldn't bother with them till I had run out of other things to monkey around with, if then. Yeah, it's all been covered on the Bot Forum, but, as somebody else already said, "yer here, right?"
Foul! I don't really know why I said that. Just 'cause you said not to, I suppose. Hey, is the Paramour amp you brought to Lima the one you're describing here?
Yep, that would be them, alright. I forgot to mention in the first pass that obviously tube rolling plays a big roll. I had (and have) TJ meshplate 2A3's. I preferred them to the Valve Arts and Sovteks. A pair of ancient RCA's were lovely till one got feeble; that's when the meshies came on board. At that show I had one dead and one live input/driver tube. (One didn't enjoy the drive to Toledo.)
I remember your having a bad input tube. Easy swap though, easy fix. You might have seen that I purchased a pair of Electro-Harmonix tubes. They sound real nice and no more Geiger-counter clicking sound from the Valve Art's. Do your VA2A3's make that Geiger counter click? I'm jealous about your RCA's. Those are what everybody wants at $300.00/pair. I'm slumming it with my $100.00/pair Electro-Harmonix. But the build quality looks very similar to the TJ Meshplates. If you don't look at the labels on the base, inside the glass you can't tell 'em apart.
As the rest of the worls knows, I won the TJ Mesh (sortaplates) in the 1,000,000th post contest. They sounded detailed, had good bass and were an upgrade? But the Valve Arts were quieter and more Musical(?) (easier to listen to) and BLUE.
Oh, yeah! I forgot about that! Your Valve Art's are quieter? That, plus being blue, make's 'em quite a catch! I need to buy a few more so I can get a pair that aren't noisy. As an aside, totally off-topic, I'm bustin' at the seams about a new project. You're gonna love it, as are all the other good woodsmiths. I can't wait to show and tell...
Why of course, you're the controversial and elusive Till E. By the way, did you see the posts on the Craftsmen forum about a FAQ? I remembered at Lima, you suggested a video FAQ so I made mention of it. Seems like a pretty cool idea, to publish a how-to audio guide online, in print and on video. And one more thing. This relates to nothing, but it's kinda fun. Check this out: 1000 is a thousand 1000000 is a million 1000000000 is a trillion 1000000000000 is a quadrillion 1000000000000000 is a quintillion 1000000000000000000 is a sextillion Anything between that and infinity is a zillion. I wanted to clarify the actual quantity of the number "zillion". Just trying to be helpful.
The Paramours are a great product for the money, but they are a "budget" entry level amp whose parts have been speced to satisfy a relatively low price point. In my mind this raises a question about how much money one would want to spend upgrading Paramours versus starting over with a more upscale product like the Paraglow or a Welborne DRD 2A3 amp. Each upgrade to the Paramours is only an incremental expense, but you could increment yourself to something that ultimately costs more than it's worth. I did the Bottlehead iron and caps upgrade, which is well worth the price, and upgraded to a Sovtek 2A3 (you really should have a backup pair of power tubes anyway). Beyond this I believe I would try to find a buyer for the Paramours and replace them with a Paraglow or a DRD.
It's been a few months now and my Electro-Harmonix 2A3's have a few hundred hours on 'em now. You're right - They've picked up that blue glow. Just wanted to check back in with you and let you know. I still remember you're the one that recommended these tubes, and a good recommendation it was too. Thanks. Blue Glow Causes
Hey-Hey!!!, You don't need any particular type of Iron. Stay class A, choke input PS, and no 'lytics. Of course good Iron helps a lot... You are looking at the last amp I have assembeled/designed. Part of the Iron is salvaged from one sort of PS or another. Outputs are Heyboer's copies of the Peerless S265 with a few mods for this particular circuit. The finals are HY69's, a Thoriated Tungsten DHTetrode. The front end is an E-Linear cascode diff amp. Ec2 referenced to the cathode node instead of the usual ground through a voltage divider... It makes about 15 watts. regards, Douglas ....damn Thrintun!
and this is an example of an E-linear amp's circuit. No loop NFB. Single B+ supply. It is the only thing I can think of that resembles a new valve circuit. If anybody can find me an example which resembles this, I would be very grateful. regards, Douglas