Valves, I think I'm starting to understand what the fuss is about.

[Alex_UK]

Or a KTM,deletes the two extra wheels......

Unless its a X-Bow of course

[wee tee cee]

Unless its a X-Bow of course

Aye,That would do for your work......

[HighFidelityGuy]

I realised yesterday that I hadn't posted any photos of the amp now that it's mostly finished.

Here's the insides:



Here's a closer look at the PCB:



And here's a closeup of the Zobel network:



My next jobs are to mount a dummy input selector switch and volume control pot and then re-attach the front panel and knobs. I intend to wire the dummy volume control so that it controls the brightness of the power LED. I have all the parts for this so I'm hoping to get that done later this week. The only other thing left to do is to block up all the input connector holes on the back that are now empty. I think I noticed some suitable plugs on eBay a while ago that should do the job. I'll post some more photos once I've got the whole thing finished off.

[wee tee cee]

Have been playing the lap top/squeezebox directly through the valve power amp utilising the volume controls on both as the pre amp.Must admit,I think it sounds better without the pre amp.
Tried going back to my Naim 5i,didnt last long.
Maybe try a t amp as a half way house,saving some sheckels along the way.....

[Jonboy]

Tried going back to my Naim 5i,didnt last long.

anything is better than a Naim amp


I'm glad you have cured your sibilance problems in all seriousness

[wee tee cee]

Had a wee listen to the Naim again.....I think I might have to go down the valve route.I will wait till the bantum arrives and give it a good listen.We must be getting quite drunk because my wife told me the Naim is like a pair of loubitans-great to walk from a venue straight into a taxi,but you wouldnt want to walk about in them all day.....I sort of understood
either way I reckon its going to cost me in amps or shoes......

[Alex_UK]

either way I reckon its going to cost me in amps or shoes......

Both, I suspect!

[HighFidelityGuy]

I installed a matched quad of cryo treated E84L's tonight. First impressions are that they've improved the bass and the detail retrieval in the higher frequencies. The bass seems to drop lower and with more authority and I heard subtle details in one track that I'd never heard before. So I'm looking forward to doing hearing how they improve as they run in. I also have a pair of E80CF gold pins on the way that I found for a reasonable price on eBay.

I also managed to find some grommets to fill the unused input socket holes in the chassis. So they've tidied up the rear panel nicely. Now I just need to sort out the power LED and front panel. Once I've done them I'll post some photo's.

[HighFidelityGuy]

I finally got round to finishing of this project today. I've fitted a new input selector switch which is purely to allow me to keep the knob for aesthetic reasons. I've also fitted a 4.7K pot where the volume control used to be and wired this in series with the existing LED resistor to allow me to fine tune the LED brightness. This has allowed me to tone down the brightness to a much more acceptable level. At 20mA it was enough to give you a migrain.

Unfortunately in my rush to get it connected back up again I forgot to take photos, so here's one of the amp in situ. I'll try to remember to more photos tomorrow as I plan to try adding some more tube damper rings then as an experiment:



I've got a cunning idea of a way to tame the transformer heat, so I'll be experimenting with that soon.

[Yoga]

Nice!

I quite fancy a tube preamp/headphone amp combo, but most (in my limited experience) are in the U.S (Shiit, Woo etc.).

Any UK versions about guys?

Edit: promoted question to a new thread