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In Reply to: Maybe Admiral? posted by DAK on August 12, 2017 at 09:30:34:
And lots of NFB / gain killing.Noisy.
Esp. into EL84s where lots of gain in the driver is almost pointless. While low GM / 'grunt', is also not good.
IMO&E many classic PP EL84 power amps and integrateds can sound a lot nicer with the changes I've suggested.
It is, of course, your money, but why re-build an amp so that it will sound less good than it could?
I listen to classical music and vocal acoustic music, live, as often as possible.
Live acoustic classical and choral music is dynamically and tonally demanding.
Sensibly progressive gain structure in any system, and I do mean any system, (not just audio) is a good idea.
IMO&E the best way to get really good - excellent in fact - sound from a small PP EL84 (or EL84M) amp is to
i) get the gain structure right. A 12AX7 splitter driver violates that
ii) a nice big and stiff PSU, which requires soft recovery SS diodes.
The PSU could use i) brute force with BIG electrolytic caps and by passing OR ii) use a choke input filter into a largish film cap, then another choke, and so on with caps.
IME the large e-caps approach works just fine.
For me an amplifier has to do its job, which is getting out of the way of the music.
This is not hard to do.
Classic era PP valve amplifiers, even little PP EL84 items, have the capability of very high energy storage in their PSUs.
This always sounds better.
Refusing to go down this track - for 'vintage' sound reasons - is beyond my understanding.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 08/14/17 08/14/17
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Follow Ups
- A 12AX7 as splitter? bad idea, way too much gain - Timbo in Oz 00:09:03 08/14/17 (6)
- No Gain if It's a Cathodyne - Triode_Kingdom 05:28:22 08/14/17 (5)
- I know, my LEAK St20s now sound a LOT better with a 6CG7 in that role, in LTP with a FET CCS. - Timbo in Oz 14:50:50 08/14/17 (0)
- Cathodyne (Concertina) PI in Fender Princeton amps - FenderLover 07:54:35 08/14/17 (3)
- Tone? we're talking about a hi-fi amp, aren't we? - Timbo in Oz 15:10:39 08/14/17 (2)
- Actually, I'm kinda agreeing with you... - FenderLover 19:40:24 08/14/17 (1)
- Interesting,... - Salectric 11:54:38 08/16/17 (0)
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