Affordable Tube Amp

swb502

Hello Everyone,

I've gotten a bit of vinyl from George now and I'd like to get some tube amps for it. I came across a pair of Antique Sound Labs Wave 8s for about $350. I was trying to around $225 but it just doesn't look possible. To that end I'll try and sell my SC-CD3 Tube Buffer to make up the difference. (Sadly I'm still under 100 posts) its been a great way to try out tubes.

The other amps in the $350 range I found were the Mini X1 6P1 and Mini X3 EL34. The Antique sound labs push 8 Watts each, I'd like to use this to run my Monitor 40 about 8 foot away from me. The two Mini put out 25 watts each.

Anyone have experience with these?

george daniel

I had a pair,,got em from Ricardo IIRC,,my first tube amps too--punchy little buggers,, I'm not that familar with the 40's,, but I can tell you that they(ASL) will surprise you.Good luck,,the journey is just beginning for you.

swb502

The other thing I came across was tube kits from S-5 electronics. I havn't used a soldering iron since high school. It's under the 350 mark, after buying soldering equipment, and something non-flammable to mount it on.

http://www.s5electronics.com/thome.html

mhardy6647

FWIW, we have one of the early S5 amps using 11BM8s (an 11 V filament variant of the 6BM8, developed for series-string applications) and it sounds remarkably good for a total investment of a tad more than 200 smackers including enclosure. About 8 wpc and dead quiet (quietest vacuum tube amplifier in the house). It is very simple; almost a toy, but outperforms its price point and is rugged and robust enough to have survived college dorm life with both of our kids.




Dollar for dollar, the absolute best deal for decent entry-level vacuum tubes can be an old hifi console amplifier; I am particularly fond of the Maggotbox (ahem, Magnavox) amps. They are almost insultingly simple in design, easy and inexpensive to restore, and they sound very good - far better than they should. I only have one at the moment; it was an 'as-found' freebie in good working order. They may be had anywhere from free (chance favors the prepared mind) to "more expensive than I'd pay for one" (on eBAY, most typically). I re-hab'bed this one for a hifi buddy; PP 6V6 for about 10 wpc.

chargerman426

Take a look at something like Jolida's FX10. I have a JD102 thatI use for a summer amp and I think its a great little amp. It uses el84 so it doesn't have much power but it sound great.

heiney9

You have to really watch some of that cheap Chinese crap the those Mini's you are looking at seem to have a lot of issues.

Up your budget a bit and go for a Jolida or Dared or the ASL's are nice too.

This is an amp that has gotten really good reviews and is well built and has a great rep. If I didn't already have a similar EL34 based class A integrated this would be mine. Just be mindful of the speaker selection and room size. 8wpc is enough for an effecient speaker in smaller room.

http://www.teconaudio.com/model_SE43i.html

They do come up for sale used every once in awhile.

In fact this is still on Audiogon...........again I have a Norh SE9 already or I would have bought this. If you don't jump on it, another Polkie definitely should!

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatube&1312830267&/Tec-on-SE34i-Single-ended-int-

H9

headrott

Brock, can that TEC amp accept KT88 and/or 6550 tubes? I saw it says "EL34 or equivalent tubes" on the web site. KT88/6550 and EL34 are considered equivalent if I am not mistaken.

Greg

heiney9

Greg, I'm not sure. I do know it's an auto bias amp rather than fixed bias. E-mail the company and see how quickly you get a response. He (the one man company) has been listing them on Ebay for years, if he has a current listing maybe you can contact him that way a little quicker.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-tec-on-audio-custom-amplifier-SET-SE34i-/160613117304?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item256549ad78

One of the things that I always liked about this integrated is the level of P2P wiring. Very tidy and nice.

headrott

I'll give it a try. Thanks Brock.

Greg

swb502

Well its the same price for the Tec on SE34i and the wave 8s. My initial thought is two amps are better then one, however I know thats not really the case. I'd like to run them on my Mointor 40s. If that dosn't work my next project might be from parts express for a little speaker that can be driven.

I'm impressed the S5 Electronic amps holding up thought college, it might be a nice easy starter project for building my first amp.

heiney9

I think the EL34 based amp will be better than the ECL82/6BM8 based amp. The 8's are nice little units but IF it were me, I'd opt for the tec*on

H9

jaritta

Hey swb, I see that you are in ft. riley, I work for a custom av shop that specializes in audio and 2ch setups. We have several jolita amps/preamps and a dared...they may be out of your price range but if you wanted to demo some stuff and just see what diferent tube stuff sounds like we would love to show it to you. Again NO pressure, just wanting to let you hear some different stuff.

We are in Manhattan.

Let me know if you are intrested and good luck!

jaritta

Sorry i guess i should mention that we have a audiomatt tube amp and a pair of manley neoclassic 250's also, again way out of your budget but cool to experence,We also cary some different pro-ject turntables. We dont mind window shoppers, we are just trying to get the word out about our company.

swb502

Jaritta,

That would be great, I acuatlyl live in Manhattan. Are you the ones over toward the mall, in that deco style building?

Jstas

swb502 wrote: »

The other thing I came across was tube kits from S-5 electronics. I havn't used a soldering iron since high school. It's under the 350 mark, after buying soldering equipment, and something non-flammable to mount it on.

http://www.s5electronics.com/thome.html

If you're interested in that amp, go here:

http://www.tubesandmore.com/

And look up the K-502 under the "Kits" section. It's under teh "Audio" sub-section. It's just under $200 now but it's the same amp. Lots have tried to tell me they are different but, they aren't. I've compared schematics and they are identical. I'm not sure how much S5 charges for them anymore but they've had limited runs while the K-502 from AES is always available.

Also, for a small extra fee, AES will send you a matched set of tubes with your kit.

I have that same K-502 (had it for years) and it's a worker. It's powered mostly the KLH 17's to great fanfare and praise as well as others including a set of R15's which are not an easy load to drive despite their simplicity. Of course sensitive speakers benefit it.

However, that amp, plus the "Jungle Green" KLH 17's and an MP3 player made it to Polkfest last year where they wowed more than one person and held their own even against the Carver Amazings. A few people preferred the K-502 and the KLH 17's over the Amazings.

jaritta

Actually we are just north of the mall, It is called Leisure time AV. It is on hostetler drive, by the pizza hut and the clairion, burnettes automotive. If you are intrested in coming by just pm me and I will give you my number,we kind of keep weird hours so it is just an appoitment. The one that is by the mall in the deco building is The audio junction...they have some 2ch stuff but my boss is big into 2ch stuff and Has a lot of tube equipment, and some high dollar speakers.

Let me know if you are intersted. We usually are there from 7-3 m-f but we can meet you if you want

swb502

Jaritta

Great, I'll PM you post haste.

swb502

Jstas,

They look identical in the picture to me as well. I though the S5 people where the producers of the kit, but that seems inacutate now. I kind of like the idea of building onemyself as an intro into the market now that I'm looking at it. Maybe work up to a bottlehead kit some day.

The Monitor 40s call for 20-125ws, 8 is well below that, so I may look at building a smaller set of speakers to go with them.

The Tec on SE34i looks soild and the reviews are pretty good as I look around, but honestly its hard to find bad reviews.

Thanks for the insite everyone.

Jstas

That K-502 is a breeze. It's a good "first project" for a beginner. If you take your time and pay attention to what you are doing, they come out absolutely spectacular. You'll feel like a theif 'cause you stole it at that price. It stands up to stuff well outside of it's price range.

headrott

I recieved an email back about the TEC SE34i amp and what tubes it can use. He stated that it can use KT77's, but not KT88 and/or 6550's. For those that are/were interested.

Greg

cnh

John's (jstas's) diminutive tube amp and the KLH 17s were really something. A very nice system--I was there for the Demos! That amp could play clean and loud with the KLHs--though, I must confess that I am also a big Henry Kloss fan!

Unfortunately I'm too lazy and maybe too incompetent to build it, easy as it may be?

cnh

mhardy6647

swb502 wrote: »

Jstas,

They look identical in the picture to me as well. I though the S5 people where the producers of the kit, but that seems inacutate now. I kind of like the idea of building onemyself as an intro into the market now that I'm looking at it. Maybe work up to a bottlehead kit some day.

The Monitor 40s call for 20-125ws, 8 is well below that, so I may look at building a smaller set of speakers to go with them.

The Tec on SE34i looks soild and the reviews are pretty good as I look around, but honestly its hard to find bad reviews.

Thanks for the insite everyone.

S5 makes the kits; I bought an S5 enclosure for my 11BM8 amp (from Antique Electronic Supply, www.tubesandmore.com) from S5; they are (or at least were) literally a mom and pop operation. Mom told me that Pop had to slightly modify the case for the S5 amp (which, at that time, used 11MS8 tubes) for the Antique Electronic Supply version of the kit.

The S5 kits, like the ASL Wave 8s, are essentially toys (they're indeed extremely similar in concept and design - except cosmetically - to the Wave 8 monoblocks) but they're fun to build and fun to use.

Jstas

I wouldn't call it a toy at all. That's a rather egregious statement there.

My K-502 was the main amplification of my rig for a long time. I was even working on a KLH/K-501 HT setup before the divorce. You put the right speaker with those little 8 watt jobbies and they will serve to impress.

I still have mine and I still use it regularly. I wouldn't give it up for anything. I paid $130 for it and spent about 4 hours on a Saturday putting it together. When I got done, I had a little marvel on my hands that just sings! I would love to hear it on say, a pair of Heresys just to see how well it would do.

mhardy6647

I think you over-interpret me (I am usually under-interpreted, so that's a nice change of pace).
I like these little amps, too, which is why I posted photos and a bit more info on them to this thread. I think one would be a dandy answer to the OP's quest for an affordable tube amp (and fun and easy to build, as well).

The S5/AES K-12/K-502 sounded very good on Cornwalls when I had them - dead quiet, in fact. Haven't tried it on the 604Es.

I concur, as did the audioXpress reviewers many years ago with your assessment.
http://www.audioxpress.com/reviews/media/1102hansen2145.pdf


Still it is a pretty nominal implementation of a vacuum tube amplifier, and it runs very hot. I didn't say it was a bad toy...

swb502

Lots of great information here, thanks guys. The cost of the 2 8wpc mono blocks, are $316, the stereo version is only $205, or $235 for the 16wpc model. I think my best bet is to go with the stereo 16wpc. Especially since it seems to get such strong reviews here.

intangible

I would add $50-100 to those figures for chassis work. You don't want anything carrying high voltages exposed where it could accidentally be touched.

I built one of these and am very happy with it. It gives you a lot more freedom to customize than buying an all inclusive kit, but would likely cost more.
http://www.tubelab.com/Simple_SE.htm

nooshinjohn

This guy is trying to sell one of Heiney's amps on the cheap...


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95992.0;prev_next=prev#new

engtaz

That is a good price.

headrott

nooshinjohn wrote: »

This guy is trying to sell one of Heiney's amps on the cheap...


http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=95992.0;prev_next=prev#new

Except that is not the same amp that H9 was talkiing about John. H9 was talking about this amp: http://www.teconaudio.com/model_SE43i.html Just for peoples' FYI.

Greg