The Amp Garage

Thanks for the suggestions.

I think that in a controlled environment, using people with excellent hearing, you might detect some subtle differences. I would only trust double-blind tests, as humans are all too easily fooled (including themselves). I've caught myself thinking I heard a difference when adjusting the control on t...

I have an amp on the bench (DR201) that got dropped, the huge PT sheared it bolts and yanked all the wires coming out of the PT breaking at least one. Is there a safe way to remove the transformer coil wrapping (to see if this can be rescued)? Using anything sharp, I'd be afraid of nicking or cuttin...

Mark wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 7:55 am the look is important to owners of vintage Fender amps.

Good point, as long as the clones are at least as good as 150s...

Anyone can buy (or steal) the rights to a brand name, and start producing product with the branding and look of the original (in this case being produced by "Shin-ei, LLC" perhaps another purchased brand name, lol.) Call me cynical, but I propose that if they look really good it'd be hard to objecti...

I also have a kit I never built (somehow I ended up ordering a second one by accident)

Definitely metal or metal oxide film on a ceramic substrate. Given the apparent age and 2% rating, I'd guess MF.

There's actually very little practical difference between the two. In the earlier case, the signal travels through the bias-setting tube (which will add a smidgen of harmonic distortion) and in the later case the signal bypasses the tube and goes directly to the PI input. The loading on the previous...

Stevem wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 3:48 pm Do you know what the KT stands for?

Mentioned up the thread, KT stands for "Kinkless Tetrode." Normal tetrodes have a kink in their characteristic curves. Beam-forming plates in KTs (and 6L6) largely remove this kink and provide a smoother pentode-like response.

Functionally it looks OK. Traynors always seemed to have high voltage B+ windings, so I'd check the AC voltage and do the math (Vp = 1.4 x Vac) to make sure the voltage at the first cap doesn't exceed its rating.

Just got this from Eminence today:

B&C (Italy) has bought out Eminence. The brand and existing KY factory will continue for now, the China factory will be moved elsewhere in Dongguan.

An important point: the ceramic high wattage resistors are rated in free air, not enclosed in a box. Lots of venting or perhaps even forced air is recommended. The gold aluminum ones further require hefty heat sinks to get to their full rating, as shown above. :) The THD Hot Plate cleverly uses some...

Yes, a solid state amp is more forgiving on the high impedance side. With the rare exception, you can even run a SS amp open-circuit with no damage. Modern high quality SS amps have built-in protection that will cut the output when a very low output impedance is detected. Tube amps are more forgivin...

Here's a Euro option: https://www.tube-town.net/ttstore/tt-dr ... ormer.html

You could try an early Hiwatt pre, the tone stack is different than the traditional F/M ones. https://hiwatt.org/Schematics/DR_Pre4Input_v1a.pdf