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134.134.136.4
Anybody know anything about this OTL in Ebay?
Follow Ups:
I purchased one of these amplifiers through Mr. Merz's 1010 Design website, and can tell you it is everything he says it is. He told me he makes these amplifiers in his own shop in New Mexico. The physical layout of the amp is somewhat unconventional, but the construction and parts quality is very good. The transformers are Avel's, the wiring is teflon and hand done, (except for the output stage PC board), and the output tubes are NOS GE 6AS7's. This is no Chinese amplifier. The owner's manual is excellent. Good deal for the price (~$700), and it sounds pretty good with my KEF 103's. Transparent, fast, very detailed, and slightly loose in the bass, like most OTL's. A good way to get your OTL feet wet, and very easy to upgrade and modify, if you choose. The heat coming off this thing is another matter...
I too recently splurged (LOL) to pick up one of these aesthetically challenged OTL amps because in parts alone they are worth more. It is merlin in disguise. I made few minor modifications and the amp is simply magical. I put in some russian .33 uf oil caps at the input and splitter phase and I put in solid output lugs. It took a l;ittle time and a few blown fuses to identify a bad tube but than things came alive. This amp trumped my reference vac 90c with its magical midrange and crystal upper range. No muddy waters here. Ambience space ,air and liquidity made me aconvert. OTL's are more temperemental, can heat your room in the winter but the sound made me a convert from many years of refining transformer coupled amps. You benefit from agreat price and challenging aesthetics. THey have minimal marketing and may have only a few more left from their initial assembly run. It sounds to me like an initial manufacturing run for an item that never reached the market. Give it a listen, you cannot loose.
Here is a link to his website
I've seen mention (via google) of 6AS7-based Chinese made OTL amps, being sold on eBay without warranties. This may be an example.The amps shown in the link do have a Chinese-y look to them, but they could just as easily be European (Russian would be a guess).
Think I'll email the seller for the spec sheets, and see what I get back. That's a quite a box of parts for $500.. doubt it could have been made in the west at those rates.
My thougths exactly, a lot of parts for the money. But as afar as I know the chinese don't make a 6AS7G (do they?) so it probably is russian/ eastern european.
We've been testing a batch just in the last week. They seem every bit as good as the Sovtek so far.
I sent an email to the seller, and received a reply from a Mr. Craig Merz, Silver City NM, USA. Interestingly enough, he said that the amps are built there, in Silver City NM - from this, one would infer that he is the builder, but he did not explicitly say this.
Here is a quick rundown of design features, from his instruction sheet (forwarded in MS Word DOC format):
- Totem pole output, similar to early Futterman
- Rated 75W/4ohms 100W/8ohms
- Power consumption 525W idle, 1400W full output
- 1.75VAC signal input for full output (500K Zin)
- Output tube complement 20X 6AS7/6080 (10X/channel)
- Driver tube complement 2X 12SN7 (6SN7 option), 2X 12AT7
- Seperate 625VA B+ xfmr for each channel
- Series string for output tube heaters (direct to AC line)
- DC switching supply for driver tube heaters
- 10 individual fuses for circuit and speaker protection
The model is simply designated "OTL 20" and seems to have no further branding.
Personaly, I don't like the series string heaters. I understand the logic, a filliment transformer would have to produce over 50A so I guess series may have to be the way to go.
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