Tube Gear Add a Pic

[KLapinas]

[mhardy6647]

click.

[thsmith]

[polkfarmboy]

Great thread idea, I hope this just turns into a great tube porn gallery

[txcoastal1]

Melody

[mhardy6647]

[agfrost]

[SCompRacer]

That Manley is kewl looking Jay! Enjoying it?

[SCompRacer]

[agfrost]

That Manley is kewl looking Jay! Enjoying it?

Enjoying it as I type! Spinning Alison Krauss Paper Airplane. It's really been a nice addition for me.

[SCompRacer]

[Face]

[mhardy6647]

just 'cause it gots tubes don't mean it gots to be pretty...




(it just gots to sound pretty)

[mhardy6647]

... as I said above... :-)

[decal]

Ooooops !!!!!!

[shadowlight]

Response Audio 3205 Extreme

[mhardy6647]

the oops photo is great (if a tad sad - I hope it's a "brand X" Chinese tube or an ancient TV tube "plinker")!

BTW, I love this game...

[EndersShadow]

You guys are really making me have to look away before I pull out my wallet and do something stupid

[SCompRacer]

I was amazed at what McAlister did with old TV tubes in his amps. Crude DIY look, every one different in some way...


Failure to backup before a hard drive crash lost close up pics of these TAD's.







An artsy type pic of tubes when I was more creative......

[mhardy6647]

So... a couple of posts above I showed an EICO ST-70 -- the other ST-70 :-)

Here's its little sibling, the ST-40. Different driver topology and bias scheme, smaller output transformers and lower power; the economy version.

EndersShadow, as you probably know, the wallet was minimally impacted by this guy - I found it on the scrap metal pile at the town dump, exactly as you see it in the first photo below (with its top removed). As Pasteur observed, "Chance favors the prepared mind".



Gary Kaufman kindly rehabbed both the ST-70 and the ST-40 for me last year. This ST-40 is currently my daily driver in MA as we transition from our long-time house to a new one...

[mhardy6647]

This one's not mine... but someday I hope to own one. I had the honor of rehabbing this one and it is one of my very favorite-est ever amps in terms of sound quality. Beautifully built, too...




(and for the record, I was asked to install those Illinois "Lemon Drop" caps in it - it sounds great just as you see it, even without a single boutique component nor high-zoot output tubes in it)

[EndersShadow]

^one of these days I will get around to hitting you up for something tubed lol. Your vintage collection rivals most folks I know ...

[mhardy6647]

only in number, not quality :-P
(but thanks for the sentiment)

heh, here's one of my very few (to date) DIY efforts:

The design is from http://www.pmillett.com/hybrid_head.htm

oh, and despite my lousy skills as a photographer, my son's got mad photo skilz :-) The earlier photo I posted of a Decware SE-84B "Zen" amp in the dark is his. Here are a few more of his (apologies to all of you who've seen these many times before). Check out his photoblog if you like photography, lenses, and cameras - all formats, film and digital. http://icouldbeahero.blogspot.com





EDIT - Baltimorons of a certain age may recognize his blog's namesake as a lyric from a truly wonderful song from Crack the Sky's eponymous debut album :-)

[SCompRacer]

.....

(and for the record, I was asked to install those Illinois "Lemon Drop" caps in it ....

Don't you mean Illinoise? Once upon a time I had it spelled like that in my sig, cause around Chicago it's hectic and all noise.. Southern IL being much quieter, slower pace. Some folks would even PM me asking "Don't you know how to spell Illinois?"

[EndersShadow]

Thanks for the idea. May have to look into that DIY project... I would source someone else to build it lol...

[mhardy6647]

Kis or semi-kits (i.e., something based on a PC board or someone else's design/layout) are the easiest way to go and can be very rewarding.

Think about a Bottlehead "Crack" headphone amp or even their crazy-cheap and enticingly cute "Quickie" battery-powered tube preamp www.bottlehead.com

You can build it! :-)

EDIT: Here's the underside of a Bottlehead "Seduction" vacuum tube phono preamp/EQ (2 x 6922 twin triodes doin' the heavy liftin'):

[EndersShadow]

Kis or semi-kits (i.e., something based on a PC board or someone else's design/layout) are the easiest way to go and can be very rewarding.

Think about a Bottlehead "Crack" headphone amp or even their crazy-cheap and enticingly cute "Quickie" battery-powered tube preamp www.bottlehead.com

You can build it! :-)

Yeah, I know about hte bottlehead stuff, but see the issue is my OCD about cable management/wiring would be the death of me on a project like that. So I would prefer to outsource it to a couple people I know that have those kinda skills so it looks right purdy

P.S. did you see my thread about the Bugle 2 phono pre that is on kickstart?

[mhardy6647]

I did see such a thread somewhere - the Bugle and its vacuum tube brethren (somone posted a Cornet photo earlier in this thread) are very respectable phono preamps.

[EndersShadow]

I did see such a thread somewhere - the Bugle and its vacuum tube brethren (somone posted a Cornet photo earlier in this thread) are very respectable phono preamps.

Yup, am aware. Thought about them, but found a Harman Kardon Citation Eleven pre-amp for not too much more and I know thats a pretty respected piece of gear

[Leftplumma]

Heres a few of my Haf-breeds.
They were upgraded to tubes by George Kay back in the 90s.
I have an issue with one but George is willing to look at/ repair it.
Not as purdy as the stuff you guys are putting up, but tube nonetheless.