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RE: Advice on getting a 45 built

Posted by Frihed89 (A) on December 16, 2014 at 11:59:33

In Reply to: Advice on getting a 45 built posted by TAdams on December 16, 2014 at 09:23:13:

Are you buying, building (DIY) or having the amplifier built by custom builder?

There are not many mfrs. Yamamoto and Don Garber are the only two that immediately spring to mind and Audio Note, but Don only builds a power amp. (unless he makes X-45) and you will have to wait around 2 years or more to get it from Don. The Audio Note I am thinking about,the Paladin, is a stereo amp, but not an integrated and it is cap-coupled, like the Yamamoto. Don's 45 power amps are direct coupled.

OPTs are really important with SET. Don goes back and forth; I'm not sure what he is using now, but he works with his customers on that. The Yamamotos have C-Core OPTs. The Audio Note 45 comes, standard, with EI OPTs. For more money you can buy the Silver or Silver Signature models of the Paladin, which sport different dual C-core OPTs.

I have an Audio Note 300B Conqueror, Silver, which is the 300B counterpart of the Paladin Silver and these OPTs make a significant difference over the EI OPT in the standard models. That said, I've listened extensively to the Standard Paladin and it's a nice sounding amp. However, I prefer the 45s I am running in Don's 2A3 monos; the only changes i make are to the rectifier tube to do this. It's not optimal, but Don says it's pretty close. I use Magnequest QS-025 OPTs, which are EI construction with interleaved secondaries. They are very good.

An excellent, custom 45 amp will probably cost around $8K-$10K (and up) from a "reputable" builder. I haven't looked into the low-end ($-wise) of custom builders. Well, I have, but the guy i was lucky to find - Jef Larson - is retired and sold off his parts.

Good luck. The 45 is a great tube, just as previous posters have noted.

One more thing. DC amps tend to be a little noisier than cap or transformer coupled amps, but not real noisy.

I forgot one commercial builder, Eddie Current. He builds a transformer coupled headphone/speaker 45 amp, but I think he's gone to parallel 45s on his 45 model. His prices are very reasonable. (So are Don's), by the way. He (Craig Uthus) has a web site by the same name (Eddiecurrent.com).

Good luck again.

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