Keith G wrote:

Right, sounds like you've got the signal best part sorted. To cap it
off now, go the next step and get it routed through a decent valve
amp. Beg, borrow or steal summat that'll push out about 25-30W a
side, switch it on and give it about 20 minutes to get the 'trons
organised, put on something 'full bodied', crank it up about halfway
and strap yerself in tight.......!!

(Then come back here and tell me you *didn't* like it!!!)

My amp is the Millennium 4-20 stereo kit that Maplin was selling a few years
ago. EF86 input to an ECC83 driving 2xEL34 in push-pull, class AB1,
nominally 20W per channel, good for 27 apparently. Clear, punchy transients
at about 1/4 to 1/3 volume - it develops 20W for 220mW input, so perhaps
it's reaching full volume peaks at my normal volume setting. Some music is
less enjoyable at about half volume, and it gradually deteriorates after
that. Goes pretty loud, never had it up full. It ain't mega-fi, but it
sounds okay. :-)

I had the valves baked in honey and soaked in swamp water - to make 'em
sweet and give 'em soul, you understand. Unfortunately, they just got sticky
and the pins corroded. I reckon a good way to hear 'the valve sound' is to
take a heavy guitar with beefy pickups and plug it into a decent valve
guitar amp. Turn it up and tickle the amp into ever-increasing levels of
creamy Audiophonic Overload Nirvana. There *is* no substitute. I built a
valve hi-fi amp (using the finest dessicated snakes) for no reason other
than: I want one. :-)

Nah, the next thing to address is the speakers. One of them is developing a
loose back panel - the original builder was economical with the screws, and
the 'plastic wood' crap that acted as a glue as well as a filler has gven
way. I need to get the panel off to see about adding extra screws to hold it
down. They're big and wardrobe-like - I'd like something much smaller and
with better bass. I want a flatter response (they're a bit boomy in places)
and more oomph low down.

The eventual plan is to make new bass enclosures, stash them out of the way,
and put the mid and top drivers into small boxes of LS3/5a sorta size. I'm
currently entertaining isobaric enclosures for the bass because I happen to
have four bass drivers - sounds like a lot of bass for the buck and easier
to build than transmission lines (which was my previous bass fantasy).


--
Wally
www.art-gallery.myby.co.uk
Latest addition: Early Works gallery