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Thread: Radford TT100 - the saga begins...?

  1. #51
    Join Date: Oct 2016

    Location: London

    Posts: 313
    I'm David.

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    Yep, I've got enough for a large scale conference tho when old it loses it's stickiness somewhat. Imagine, you have to service your amp not because the electrolytic are knackered but because the Blue Tack holding the thing together is failing.......

    It does sound glorious even with reduced bias on one channel and I can't wait to test it out fully either! Just waiting for some replacement bias pots from Will, as these were a casualty of whatever burn out had occurred in that channel. Otherwise, the pcbs have been well patched, the solid state devices-two op amps, 4 transistors-have all been replaced and its raring to go. Transistors at 50p a pop really out the price of valves to shame!

  2. #52
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by AD Audio View Post
    Yep, I've got enough for a large scale conference tho when old it loses it's stickiness somewhat. Imagine, you have to service your amp not because the electrolytic are knackered but because the Blue Tack holding the thing together is failing.......

    It does sound glorious even with reduced bias on one channel and I can't wait to test it out fully either! Just waiting for some replacement bias pots from Will, as these were a casualty of whatever burn out had occurred in that channel. Otherwise, the pcbs have been well patched, the solid state devices-two op amps, 4 transistors-have all been replaced and its raring to go. Transistors at 50p a pop really out the price of valves to shame!
    In a way the TT100 is a footnote to history, Radford moved to solid state in the early 70s with the ZD (Zero Distortion) series but despite their stellar measurements, these were not as good sounding as the earlier amps (I owned one briefly). The TT100 came after these fully solid state amps and was a return to valves in the output stage, though it kept solid state for the input.

    As I understand it, there's little difference on the output side between it and my earlier STA100, so it would be interesting to compare the whether there's any sonic difference between the later amp with the op amps and transistors, and the earlier one where the input side is the signature Bailey/Radford asymmetric splitter/driver arrangement essentially similar to rest of the classic STA series. I would expect them to sound pretty much the same.

  3. #53
    Join Date: Sep 2012

    Location: London

    Posts: 434
    I'm Nick.

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    Yes indeed - I'd also be very interested to hear the two side by side. Most hybrid designs favoured valves on the inputs and solid state on the outputs, but not Radford.

  4. #54
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by nickbaba View Post
    Yes indeed - I'd also be very interested to hear the two side by side. Most hybrid designs favoured valves on the inputs and solid state on the outputs, but not Radford.
    Makes sense to me that it might work better the other way round especially with Radford's capability at output transformers .. of course solid state output is generally a lot cheaper to implement than doing valve output properly.

  5. #55
    Join Date: Sep 2012

    Location: London

    Posts: 434
    I'm Nick.

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    Well, not long now before I can strap it to the Cheviots and see what's what... did you get your STA100 back from Will yet, Tom?

  6. #56
    Join Date: Nov 2010

    Location: Yorkshire

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    I'm Andrew.

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    I really love to see how the TT100, my Sondex S100 and the STA100 all compare against each other. Would be fun to have a bake-off!
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  7. #57
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by REXTON View Post
    I really love to see how the TT100, my Sondex S100 and the STA100 all compare against each other. Would be fun to have a bake-off!
    ... if only to agree 'yup all good' and just have some tunes ....

    Mine got held up at the paint shop but Will has it back and and I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks.

  8. #58
    Join Date: Oct 2016

    Location: London

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    I'm David.

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    What surprises me is how valve-like Radford have managed to make the op amp input stage. And the amp is uncannily quiet too. You are right Tom the other solid state bits are effectively mimicking the tube long-tailed pair phase splitter arrangement

    Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

  9. #59
    Join Date: Sep 2012

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    I'm Nick.

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    So, I finally collected the TT100 from David yesterday, with great excitement. It's now home, hooked up to my Tannoy RFC Cheviots, EAR 834p and SL-1210.
    I've been waiting to hear this amp since I bought it more than 2 months ago... no idea what to expect, beyond a brief audition at David's with his phone as the source. I was told that Radford's are a great match for Tannoys, but never heard one in action before.

    And what's the verdict? Well, I'm happy to say it sounds phenomenal!
    It is in pretty serious company, as it's on the heels of an EAR 890, my recently sold John Wood KT88 and going head-to-head with my trusty old McIntosh MA7000, but in my opinion the old TT holds its own with ease against those beasts.

    Plenty of headroom with its 100w, and it has that valve-y liquid sound in the mid-range, like pouring velvety paint into my eardrums... vocals sound amazing, real presence and smooth flow in the mids, but lacking nothing in the bottom end. Perhaps not quite as pin-sharp and defined as the solid state MA7000 in the very top and bottom, but more than compensated for by the overall musicality of the sound.

    Still plenty of listening to do, only had a couple of hours with it so far, but it put a big smile on my face for sure. I think its still going to be a while before it comes completely on-song, plenty of new and replaced parts that need to bed-in and get settled, and I think the presentation could get a little 'looser' and more relaxed with time, but even at this point it sounds very very lovely.

    I'd like to thank David for the amazing job he did restoring this amp to its former glory, he went above and beyond the call of duty and really worked some magic on it. He certainly knows his stuff and no mistake, and it was a pleasure to deal with him at every step of the process. He took the amp from being basically a blu-tack'd together 600v deathtrap to a thing of beauty that will give many more years of top quality listening pleasure.

  10. #60
    montesquieu Guest

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    Awesome result - though not unexpected

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