There is a river of barginaceous valve amplification on eBay atm which (as a
keen fan of valve amps myself) I reckon can only be a Good Thing.

OK, a ton of them are being offered by our old friend (and likeable nutter)
the Affordable valve Company (see eBay No. 5709515681 for all you could wish
to know about valve amps in a single document!!) but, nevertheless, this has
to be a very good time for anyone looking to try valves for themselves. The
loopy 'High End' (mostly US) mould is broken and valve amps are now getting
back where I think they properly belong - inexpensive and simple but
superb/superior audio amplification available to anyone at 'hobbyist' prices
and no longer the exclusive province of the wealthy eccentric who merely
wishes to be 'different'.

Sure, the wisacres in the Western World will make the usual remarks about
cheap goods from the Far East (they've been doing it ever since one of
Kawasaki's early efforts at ship-building turned turtle on launching and a
bloke called Honda strapped a concrete mixer engine to a pedal bicycle...)
but just see the refreshing candour in this auction No. 5709843542......

"Please note; As we have received a few of faulty Yaqin 10K valve amp, we
found there are some circuit design problems in the amp. We now STOP to
selling those amp on ebay, however if any customer still like it also he has
valve electronic experience. we then can supply them and will discuss what's
problem in it. we are honest ebayer and do not wish bring any trouble to our
customer, People who bought those amp please contact me for a repair if
problem arise.(no any charge)"

.....can't ask for more than that, can you? So go grab 'em before the sodding
EC tries to slam the door on them!

(Finally, see Also eBay No. 5710354832 for a very interesting 300B amp
looking strangely not unlike my own - could this also be from the
world-reknowned 'Bluebell Audio' stable and possibly from Phil's very own
hands....?? :-)

Keith G wrote:
There is a river of barginaceous valve amplification on eBay atm
which (as a keen fan of valve amps myself) I reckon can only be a
snip
(Finally, see Also eBay No. 5710354832 for a very interesting 300B amp
looking strangely not unlike my own - could this also be from the
world-reknowned 'Bluebell Audio' stable and possibly from Phil's very
own hands....?? :-)

http://www.vincent-tac.de/


http://www.audioclassics.co.uk/


two of the best




--
Dave xxxx
www.davewhitter.myby.co.uk

Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
Steam is Fun

"Keith G" wrote in message
...
There is a river of barginaceous valve amplification on eBay atm which (as
a
keen fan of valve amps myself) I reckon can only be a Good Thing.

OK, a ton of them are being offered by our old friend (and likeable
nutter)



OK, I've been informed off-list that this bloke is actually a bit of an
arsehole, so delete 'friend' and 'likeable' and just drop back to
'nutter'.....

(My opinion was based on no more than his promotional literature/advertising
which appears even-handed and fair with its money back offers and passing on
the opinion of someone who has had dealings with him - I've never spoken to
the bloke, so it just goes to show, dunnit? :-)

"Please note; As we have received a few of faulty Yaqin 10K valve amp, we
found there are some circuit design problems in the amp. We now STOP to
selling those amp on ebay, however if any customer still like it also he has
valve electronic experience. we then can supply them and will discuss what's
problem in it. we are honest ebayer and do not wish bring any trouble to our
customer, People who bought those amp please contact me for a repair if
problem arise.(no any charge)"

Hmm.

Well my cathode resistor (at least) blew up. I think it's under-specced
power-wise.

I still haven't got round to collecting the replacement resistors from
Maplin yet, but I intend to do so soon.

If anyone else gets more info about these MC-10K faults, please post the
info here.

Thanks.


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

Well I installed one new 3.3 Ohm resistor last night, and ******* fiddly
it was too.

My amp is now back on song.

The Ebay seller said he'd send me some replacement valves, cos apparently
they may be part of the cause. I'm not certain though, but if he wants
to throw free valves at me, I'll take them just in case.

For now, it sounds absolutely fine.

Another resistor might blow up in the meantime though. But they're such
a damn pain to replace without being able to open the case, that I'll
wait until it happens, before replacing them.


Martin - Content again
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

Cathode resistors on some power amp output valves are purposely underspeced
(wattage wise) to go open circuit if an excessive amount of current is drawn
due to a faulty valve or circuit fault associated with that valve. Often the
resistor is burnt o/c & the B+ fuse is okay. You'd think they'd make it at
least easy to get at to replace though.

Mike

"Fleetie" wrote in message
...
Well I installed one new 3.3 Ohm resistor last night, and ******* fiddly
it was too.

My amp is now back on song.

The Ebay seller said he'd send me some replacement valves, cos apparently
they may be part of the cause. I'm not certain though, but if he wants
to throw free valves at me, I'll take them just in case.

For now, it sounds absolutely fine.

Another resistor might blow up in the meantime though. But they're such
a damn pain to replace without being able to open the case, that I'll
wait until it happens, before replacing them.


Martin - Content again
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967
110890
Manchester, U.K.
http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

In article , Mike Gilmour
writes
Cathode resistors on some power amp output valves are purposely underspeced
(wattage wise) to go open circuit if an excessive amount of current is drawn
due to a faulty valve or circuit fault associated with that valve. Often the
resistor is burnt o/c & the B+ fuse is okay. You'd think they'd make it at
least easy to get at to replace though.


Some old Philips TV's used to do this with the frame output pentode a
PCL86 IIRC, they used to put it on two short tags so that if it got hot
then it would melt the solder and "drop off" ..

Fine idea except that the cathode bypass electrolytic then used to take
the AC load and explode putting electrolyte all over the PCB and cause
other bits to conduct better than what they should have done!...

Usual problem was a heather to cathode short as the valves were series
connected heaters via a dropping resistor etc....

--
Tony Sayer

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
Some old Philips TV's used to do this with the frame output pentode a
PCL86 IIRC, they used to put it on two short tags so that if it got hot
then it would melt the solder and "drop off" ..

Ahh - the G6. Fond memories...

--
*Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Mike Gilmour
writes
Cathode resistors on some power amp output valves are purposely
underspeced
(wattage wise) to go open circuit if an excessive amount of current is
drawn
due to a faulty valve or circuit fault associated with that valve. Often
the
resistor is burnt o/c & the B+ fuse is okay. You'd think they'd make it
at
least easy to get at to replace though.


Some old Philips TV's used to do this with the frame output pentode a
PCL86 IIRC, they used to put it on two short tags so that if it got hot
then it would melt the solder and "drop off" ..

Fine idea except that the cathode bypass electrolytic then used to take
the AC load and explode putting electrolyte all over the PCB and cause
other bits to conduct better than what they should have done!...

Usual problem was a heather to cathode short as the valves were series
connected heaters via a dropping resistor etc....

--
Tony Sayer


I'd forgotten that! The splatter from the exploding electrolytic brought
the chain of thought back. At that time I used to do TV repair years ago
for Redifusion as a fill in job during seagoing leave. It must have been a
long while ago as I remember 405 to 625 conversions on with their rental
(non aerial) sets. ;-)

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
writes
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
Some old Philips TV's used to do this with the frame output pentode a
PCL86 IIRC, they used to put it on two short tags so that if it got hot
then it would melt the solder and "drop off" ..

Ahh - the G6. Fond memories...

Actually I was referring to the earlier monochrome models, can't
remember the names now tho so very long ago!.....

might have been the 210 chassis?...
--
Tony Sayer