| Theater 4's w/ EL-84 at 14 Watts per [message #39349] |
Thu, 05 December 2002 03:17  |
Garland
Messages: 269
Registered: May 2009
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Grand Master |
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Last night I finished re-wiring my Dad's old 60's Heathkit AA-111 EL-84 stereo amp and popped it into the system, displacing the Bottlehead Paramours. Everything worked fine though the sound was at first a bit thin and dry and not much depth to the soundstage. After one CD's play the sound opened up a lot and sweetened and dynamics improved considerably. I left the player on replay and watched the required West Wing with my wife, did the required Quality Time conversation prior to my wife's heading off to bed and then returned to the audio system for one last check on the sound before retiring myself. Well, boy oh boy! Heath must have used some pretty darn good iron in these baby's. the 3 hours of warming up really brought the amps up to truly great sound. The new Solen tin foil coupling caps sounded very good to my ears and I'll have to try them in other circuits. The Theater 4's really liked the extra power with startling dynamics and the RCA EL-84's have a distinct sweetness of tone which is appealing (though not the veracity of the 2A3's). So, I think I'll keep the Heath in the system for a while, build a new "Soul Sister" preamp, put together some cabinets so that Dave Cope can finally get to hear what all his mega $$ drivers really sound like and squeeze in a little bit of Christmas sometime in the next 3 or so weeks! Garland
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| Re: Theater 4's w/ EL-84 at 14 Watts per [message #39350 is a reply to message #39349] |
Thu, 05 December 2002 04:04  |
Scholl
Messages: 67
Registered: May 2009
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Viscount |
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If you search the DIY tube forum I posted some mods I did on a AA-151. Basicly I gutted the amp removed the electrolitic power supply caps and put in Solen 47uf polies and a 6H choke. Later replaced the 6AN8 with 6H30 circuit. Sound stage goes to the moon and back. Tonal balance is a bit tward the bright side thanks to the Solens but not terribly so. MAybe oilers will keep a warner tone. I'm also using the Angela\Solen tin foil caps. The over all sound is more Hi-Fi than musical but I like Hi-Fi, nutt'n wrong with bandwidth, dynamics and sound stage. There are several 6BQ5 and 6V6 amps that sound great. 10-20 watts is nice too.
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| Jeez, no moss growing on you, man! [message #39364 is a reply to message #39349] |
Thu, 05 December 2002 19:01 |
DRC
Messages: 169
Registered: May 2009
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Master |
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I've gotten the drivers as far as Brooklyn, but can't seem to cover the rest of the distance. I'll get 'em there eventually. I have two amps you'd enjoy with the Theater 4's, I think. An AN Kit 4 which is a PP 6V6 and the Soro SE which is paralleled SE 6L6's. The latter has monster iron, 18 or 20 w/ch and was a real shock to me after 2A3 amps. Dynamics up the proverbial wazoo!
Keep your ears and your mind open.
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| Re: Theater 4's w/ EL-84 at 14 Watts per [message #39365 is a reply to message #39349] |
Thu, 05 December 2002 21:06 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18783
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Thanks for the review; I envy you guys playing with all that cool stuff! I've always used amps that could jump start your car or arc weld the frame, and haven't owned tube gear except for antique radios. I've been able to listen to modern hi-fi triode amps with π's, but haven't "lived with them" up to now. And my experience is that you can't really properly evaluate a product until you've had it for quite some time and made its use a habit. It's like building a relationship, in a way. So my experience with tubes is actually quite limited, and amounts to fixing old tube radios and light engineering work with Spice. But I'm hot on your trail - Dan sent my Paramour kits today! Now I get a taste of the other side of the spectrum. So I'll be building the amps perfectly stock and bringing them to Lima with me. If I start doing the popular mods, it will be to another amp because I want to have samples of popular SET amps that are stock, so that it is an accurate representation of Bottlehead offerings. I'd also like to have some of Brian Cherry's Consonance amps, or whatever they are called after the rename. I hope to hear a representation of some other amps at Lima, and I think it's reasonable to assume I'll get that chance. :-) Are you going to make it? Grab the gang and come on, if you can!
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| Re: We got yer Consonance, right here [message #39369 is a reply to message #39368] |
Fri, 06 December 2002 03:34 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18783
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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That's sounds great! I expect the Ella must be excellent. To tell the truth, I was shocked to find that Stanley Chu had died and also that I hadn't heard about it. He and I kept in touch, and wrote every couple of months. He bought some Pro four π's and some Studio one π's way back when. Brian Cherry and Stanley were partners, and I'm glad that now Brian has teamed with Kevin and are promoting their amps through DIY HiFi. Just a neat bunch of guys, and I'd like to see them do well. I've been bidding on some old tube radios. I'd like to give a TransOceanic or something like that to my grandparents for Christmas - I have a real nice TransOceanic and listen to the shortwave band on it almost every day. Catch a few talk radio broadcasts on the standard broadcast AM band from time to time too. So having a nice radio like that would bring back some good memories for my grandparents, I expect. I'm anxious to see you and your new aquisitions and creations at Lima. I think we're going to have a really nice time this year!
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| Re: Theater 4's w/ EL-84 at 14 Watts per [message #39372 is a reply to message #39349] |
Fri, 06 December 2002 11:19 |
Garland
Messages: 269
Registered: May 2009
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Grand Master |
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I'm in the middle of one hell of a F*^&(@-up "charrette" here at work, can only take a few seconds to report that during last nights listen to the Heaths after about one hour of listening there was generated these weird bubbles of awesome midrange which would develope and then quickly fade back to more normal quality. These bubbles gradually congealed into a whole consistent quality that was quite appealing. The only problem is that this effect is frequency limited to a fairly small band in the midrange and is somewhat discontinuous with the rest of the music. Hopefully more breakin will help. The amp is fun to listen to being quite lively! Wayne, can't wait to get you into the tube scene; besides the sonic character I find that with the resources on the internet and the general character of tube circuits there is an abundance of oportunity to play with the soldering iron, unlike SS circuits (to the best of my knowledge). Dave Cope, where the heck are you??? G.
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