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6n3 valve pre amp. |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Old Father Thames
Posts: 4,011
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6n3 valve pre amp.
Anyone tried one of these Chinese babies? I ordered a kit from eBay for the hell of it.
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#2 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
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What are you hoping it will do for you?.
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#3 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 5,981
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Probably trying to flog a few with a tenuous question on here.
I once built a valve amp - it was tremendous but not toddler-friendly so it had to go unfortunately. Can't say I miss it, even though it's back from uni now for the summer.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Old Father Thames
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Nah, I always liked my hifi but I live on a boat now so no room. My current set up is quite nice but a bit digital. I'm hoping that by feeding the line out from my dac into it may warm it up. I know you audiophiles will pooh pooh it but hey...it was 20 quid and only a punt.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,924
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Well the valves might warm the room up. But I doubt they'll do much for the sound
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Old Father Thames
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What make you say that Chris?
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#7 |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,924
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Just because it has a valve in it does not make it a super-duper HiFi device. It is just as easy to design a really crap sounding valve amp as it is a transistor one. Some of the comments I have seen about some of the cheaper variants of these valve kits (and there do seem to be a load) don't fill me with much confidence.
I've seen criticism of some designs saying they are wide open to RFI for example due to poor input design. Other people have criticised aspects of the design such as exposed 170V DC supply rails that could give the unwary a serious belt. A common criticism seems to be a lack of instructions so unless you are reasonably familiar with electronics you would struggle to build the kits properly. All in all I wouldn't be expecting much from a cheap and possibly not so cheerful kit as some of those I've seen on e-bay. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Old Father Thames
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I hear what you're saying, the one I've got is the expanded Matisse cct, if the components are as good as they say it'll be an interesting experiment tho. I've read good and bad but for the price of a night in the pub....
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#9 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
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Quote:
I hear what you're saying, the one I've got is the expanded Matisse cct, if the components are as good as they say it'll be an interesting experiment tho. I've read good and bad but for the price of a night in the pub....
However, adding a valve will only make your sound worse, greatly increasing distortion and noise, and giving a much poorer frequency response - but some people seem to like the inferior sound (presumably taking them back to the 'bad old days' ).
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Old Father Thames
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Dudes! My favourite system went...
Marrantz for the digits, NAD for the boost and Mission for the electrical to noise conversion. My current set up lacks that thing that you can't put your finger on. Love from a broadcast engineer with 20 years of experience that doesn't need condescending advice from glorified TV salesmen. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Quote:
Dudes! My favourite system went...
Marrantz for the digits, NAD for the boost and Mission for the electrical to noise conversion. My current set up lacks that thing that you can't put your finger on. Love from a broadcast engineer with 20 years of experience that doesn't need condescending advice from glorified TV salesmen.
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 6,462
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The beauty of valves is in the way they move electrons.
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#13 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,469
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Quote:
Dudes! My favourite system went...
Love from a broadcast engineer with 20 years of experience Many valve circuits in the past added second harmonic distortion which some people find pleasant. I don't know if that is the effect you are looking for, only trial and error will tell. |
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Quote:
The beauty of valves is in the way they move electrons.
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#15 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cheshire
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Quote:
At least they are dead simple to understand how they work
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#16 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
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Quote:
So is a MOS-FET
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#17 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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Quote:
I could build a valve - I doubt I could build a MOS-FET
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#18 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 24,350
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I have a valve amp, home made with a gz34 rectifier, 6sn7s feeding mazda pen45s as the output bottles in push-pull. Sounds good !
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#19 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Quote:
At least they are dead simple to understand how they work
![]() I learnt all about them in the following years but no longer bother repairing valve stuff , except for a Hacker record player for a friend that needed recapping. ( horrid tone circuit on them, only got a treble cut control , not boost ) anyway, I digress.. |
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#20 |
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Quote:
Anyone tried one of these Chinese babies? I ordered a kit from eBay for the hell of it.
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#21 |
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,469
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Quote:
When I started in electronics in the early 80s, my instructor said " this is a valve" *** holding one up**" they are now defunct and we will only spend a day on their theory" - and we did!
I learnt all about them in the following years but no longer bother repairing valve stuff , except for a Hacker record player for a friend that needed recapping. ( horrid tone circuit on them, only got a treble cut control , not boost ) anyway, I digress.. Nearly all portable record players had treble cut tone controls back then. In the rare instance they had a bass control it was often just cut as well. |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
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Quote:
When I started in electronics in the early 80s, my instructor said " this is a valve" *** holding one up**" they are now defunct and we will only spend a day on their theory" - and we did!
Quote:
I learnt all about them in the following years but no longer bother repairing valve stuff , except for a Hacker record player for a friend that needed recapping. ( horrid tone circuit on them, only got a treble cut control , not boost ) anyway, I digress.. |
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#23 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 378
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Quote:
As already mentioned, that was perfectly normal - and in fact Hacker were one of the very few who did often fit 'proper' tone controls as we understand them today.
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#24 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Quote:
I had a Rogers amp and in addition to the normal bass and treble it had a 'Slope' control which, if memory serves, was a variable top cut filter.
The 'slope' control was probably for helping to reduce scratches from records, and hiss from tapes
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,469
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Leak I think made an amp with the name Varislope, you set the treble filter cut off frequency and then the rate of roll off on the slope control for best results. As Nigel says it was for hiss and scratchy records. Happy days, long before digital.
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