need advice re buying new fleawatt SE amp

[rogerfederer]

have been running the 604s all day with 0.75 wpc darling clementine amp and still sounds great. will do some critical listening with music i know very well, but so far looks like 45 amp would work fine in this system.
probably helps that the Altecs are 16 ohm and i have 15" JBL helper woofers crossed at 150 hz.

oliver sayes says he could build me a switchable 2A3/45 amp so that might be the silver bullet, but i'm thinking hard about that yamamoto 45 with the "reclaimed wood" base. wild card is the local stereomour: don't know price, mods, tubes, etc.

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

have been running the 604s all day with 0.75 wpc darling clementine amp and still sounds great. will do some critical listening with music i know very well, but so far looks like 45 amp would work fine in this system.
probably helps that the Altecs are 16 ohm and i have 15" JBL helper woofers crossed at 150 hz.

oliver sayes says he could build me a switchable 2A3/45 amp so that might be the silver bullet, but i'm thinking hard about that yamamoto 45 with the "reclaimed wood" base. wild card is the local stereomour: don't know price, mods, tubes, etc.

Sounds like you have a number of very viable options.

 

[rogerfederer]

This is what the cabinets look like

 

[Opa1]

What kind of hors d’oeuvres you serving in the tray. Nice work.

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

This is what the cabinets look likeView attachment 9938View attachment 9939

VERY nice.

 

[rogerfederer]

tray is where the crossover lives; cheap from target

 

[Punker X]

This is what the cabinets look likeView attachment 9938View attachment 9939

I thought of doing this with the same cabinets... Would love to hear this..

 

[rogerfederer]

punker,
come visit and you can hear your old luxman too!

now i have to clean up those cabinets; alas, woodworking is not my strong suit

and, re the new amp decision, narrowed to 3 options, all new builds from mr. sayes (not heard from stereomour guy):
1. switchable 2A3/45
2. repeat of this: Glow in the Dark Audio - Single Ended Type 46 by Oliver Sayes
3. possibly all 3: "It would also be possible to build something usable with all 3 (45/2a3 and 46 with an adaptor). 417a wouldn't be my choice of driver tube in this case but a 717a pentode like Yamamoto or even better c3g would give enough gain to use directly from a passive preamp. The same output transformers as Kevin's Amp would get ~1.5 watts from 45, ~1.25 watts from 46 and somewhere around 2.5 watts from 2a3 at very low distortion. If you wanted the full 3.5 watts from 2a3 it would need a custom output transformer. "

 

[mhardy6647]

... and then there are the push-pull 845 amps. Lethal but luscious.


Built by RCA for screenings of Disney's Fantasia.

We're here for you, buddy!

 

[gable]

... and then there are the push-pull 845 amps. Lethal but luscious.

You sir, are my kind of crazy..

Lovely photo, very lovely.

 

[mhardy6647]

I know this guy -- runnin' a pair of those. They are the real deal.

 

[gable]

punker,
come visit and you can hear your old luxman too!

now i have to clean up those cabinets; alas, woodworking is not my strong suit

and, re the new amp decision, narrowed to 3 options, all new builds from mr. sayes (not heard from stereomour guy):
1. switchable 2A3/45
2. repeat of this: Glow in the Dark Audio - Single Ended Type 46 by Oliver Sayes
3. possibly all 3: "It would also be possible to build something usable with all 3 (45/2a3 and 46 with an adaptor). 417a wouldn't be my choice of driver tube in this case but a 717a pentode like Yamamoto or even better c3g would give enough gain to use directly from a passive preamp. The same output transformers as Kevin's Amp would get ~1.5 watts from 45, ~1.25 watts from 46 and somewhere around 2.5 watts from 2a3 at very low distortion. If you wanted the full 3.5 watts from 2a3 it would need a custom output transformer. "

Glad you narrowed it down to 3 options, though, those are tough options.

The 717a or c3g driven 46 sounds the most unique to me, and in my mind, that makes it very attractive.

 

[Punker X]

come visit and you can hear your old luxman too!

I do come that way taking my wife to visit here family in Tidewater and the Outerbanks..

 

[rogerfederer]

So I commissioned an amp from Oliver that will run 2A3, 45, 46 tubes. Should arrive end of February.

In the meantime I picked up this nice stereomour locally. A little beat up but the wiring is tidy. Sounds really nice! Shugang 2A3s and a GE JAN 12AT7. Detailed and a very nice tone.

 

[TubeHiFiNut]

View attachment 10130So I commissioned an amp from Oliver that will run 2A3, 45, 46 tubes. Should arrive end of February.

In the meantime I picked up this nice stereomour locally. A little beat up but the wiring is tidy. Sounds really nice! Shugang 2A3s and a GE JAN 12AT7. Detailed and a very nice tone.

One can never have too many amps.

 

[mhardy6647]

One can never have too many amps.

Listen to this man.

 

[Audionut]

Listen to this man.

Cough, cough enabler! (Clears throat)

 

[Audionut]

This is what the cabinets look likeView attachment 9938View attachment 9939

That is actually a great idea! Kind of like the “big red” set up? I’ve actually thought of this too since some of the folks around here have noted needing a little help on the low-end with the altec 604. I definitely do not want a separate sub woofer either so this may be the route to go for me.

 

[rogerfederer]

got the idea from gordonw over on AK. he is using similar setup. btw, he is the wizard that re-coned my drivers and restored them to glory!

now trying to deal with the wood rot, gouges, etc in the cabinets. using liquid wood and wood epoxy from abatron. never done this before and no woodworking skills so wish me luck. working on my 612C cabinets at the same time. will repaint them battleship grey. not decided what to do with the JBL cabinets. would like to keep the JBL logos on the side but really makes more sense to completely repaint them. hmmmm.

 

[mhardy6647]

just remember
the perfect is the enemy of the good.