Amp & SDA1c's ?

boston1450

Will this amp work/power with SDA1c ? Is it common ground ? Ive been wanting to get into a int tube amp & this is affordable & match perfect with my SD30a tube cd player. I would change out the tubes to Mullards as i enjoy them in my YaQin cd2. One other question is. Im not good with tube gear & i know there are certain things that need to be adjusted often. Is that something i can be walked through ? And what equipment would i need ? I cant remember what i read about adjustments-so any help would be appreciated.. The amp is a YaQin MC100b http://m.ebay.com/itm/171156919600?nav=SEARCH

voltz

I think it would handle the SDA 1C's just fine, as I have this Integrated amp and so does Marvin and Mikey and he powered his SDA's with it and I have used it on my New CRS's and they sound great together... I also use it on my Monitor 10's.
The Biasing is easy with a meter, as their are 2 holes +/- around the 4 power tubes you just put the positive in the positve hole & neg in the neg hole etc.. and adjust it to 55 and check it now and then.


mine was from Silk Audio and a local dealer in the states.... on ebay he is "oc123" and I can ask if he has anymore...right now hes just selling the MC-13s which is a 40wpc amp

Polkie2009

Looks like a sweet little tube amp. I was thinking over the past 6 or 7 years, I've seen a number of posts here in the CP forum from members who own this model or similar tube amp.

voltz

or you can use something like this 4 plug bias tool , you plug them into the power sockets then the power tube into them and it makes it so easy to check out the bias, or set the bias for each tubes ..was ship from china for about $50-60 cant remember.

boston1450

voltz wrote: »

I think it would handle the SDA 1C's just fine, as I have this Integrated amp and so does Marvin and Mikey and he powered his SDA's with it and I have used it on my New CRS's and they sound great together... I also use it on my Monitor 10's.
The Biasing is easy with a meter, as their are 2 holes +/- around the 4 power tubes you just put the positive in the positve hole & neg in the neg hole etc.. and adjust it to 55 and check it now and then.

Thats the one ive been eyeing. Where would i get this meter ? Thanks for info

gudnoyez

So what kind of pre can you use with such a tube integrated? I have been thinking of getting one down the road.

voltz

you don't need a preamplifier with this but you can use one if you want to, as it is a integrated amplifier. as it doesn't not have a headphone amp built in or a remote or any preouts for a sub.

to use a preamp with it just send you sources to the preamp of your choice and send a analog out to one of the MC-100b's input.

gudnoyez

So what all can you hook up to it and yeah (duh) it's an integrated and does not need a pre, I have 2 SS integrateds I should of known better, but is it two channel with an aux for a CD player and a turntable? I don't know a thing about tubes.

voltz

yes it has 4 sets of inputs, doesn't have a phono preamp built in. only thing i miss is a remote sometimes. and you have to turn it on always with speakers already connected (a must) wait 5 minutes before turning up volume..etc... same with all tube amps. sounds best when the tube are hot so it sounds best after about 30-60 minutes..

boston1450

Have you rolled any different tubes yet. I would add a phono preamp for my tt. Ive read good reviews on this unit. So its nice to hear your thoughts

voltz

I have put in the mullards and some 50 year treasures for the Kt88's the mullards were like $170 and treasures were $300 and the mullards sound to me just as good
use Mullards in the 12AX7's also and Tung-sol in the 6ns7's. but the tube that came with it were pretty good too. .. so try them out for awhile 1st, as you may just like them just fine!

boston1450

^^^^^ i noticed after & compared pics. Silk/Yaqins are very nice. Thats what i have plans on. Question.... What brand/model is the meter & about how much are they ? Thank you again

voltz

Here is a link for bias tool I bought and the same person I ordered from. It is $69.99 now and you have to ask for the option for 2 more probes as it only comes with 2 of them and he charges $30 for 2 more so the total would be $110 +15 shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quad-Tube-Amp-Bias-match-Meter-6L6-El34-KT88-6BQ5-Probe-/301054314656?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item46183c48a0

Faustin

I have the MC100b from Silk Audio. I live about an hour from him and went over a month or so ago and spent a couple of hour talking to Ray and listening to the amp with a set of 10a's he had recently picked up. I currently have it hooked to a set of modded SDA 1c's. I generally run it in triode mode and it performs well. Does not have the punch that my Adcom 555 and Dared tube pre have, but I am not interested in my ears bleeding. Have the stock kt88 tubes and have a quad of RCA old stock 6sn7's and Raytheon black plate 12ax7 that were made for Baldwin Organ. Biasing is a snap. Get a digital multi meter for $15, and it takes all of 2 minutes to check bias. Initially when it was new, it seemed like the bias drifted a bit and I adjusted it every couple of days. Now that things have burned in a bit, I have not made an adjustment in a while. As for adding a pre amp, I have been told by two sources that I cannot use a separate pre with the amp. Is anyone currently using one?? A week or two ago I emailed Ray from Silk to ask about using KT 120 tubes in place of the KT 88 tubes to add a little more punch. I did not hear back from Ray for a couple of days and when he did respond he indicated he was in fact in China touring the Yaqin factory and asked them about the KT 120 tubes. They did not recommend it, as it would be pushing the transformers too hard. Nice entry level amp and very happy with the customer support. Oh, and I told Ray he should really re-cap the 10a's he bought and do the customary mods to them. I will have to bug him to see if he did.

F1nut

Just buy a DVOM to bias the tubes.

F1nut

The amp is a YaQin MC100b

30wpc in triode is not enough to drive the 1C's, you'll have to use ultralinear.

boston1450

^^^^ thanks. I was going to be asking that

voltz

I wrote (oc123) ray, and he wrote me back that he was out of the MC-100b's and it would be about 6 + weeks to get them in. and that here in a few days he has a new one coming out. Its like the MC-30l but with a new face plate and a meter, I'm not sure if the meter will be on the front plate of top like a rogue amp... I do not know the spec's of the new one but when it comes out I'm sure he will list it or your could email him.

Also the MC-100b is super heavy, think it has to be like 70lbs or so.

Faustin

Here is an update on my experience with the MC-100b. The past few days I have spent quite a lot of time listening to the amp in question with my 1c's. In addition to that setup I have a set of 12c's hooked to an Adcom 555 and a Dared Sl2000 on a loft area over looking the room that the 1c's are. They are both hooked to cd players. I upgraded the interconnects to Neotech cables on both systems. Not stupid crazy expensive, but seem to be decent cables. Also have upgraded both systems with solid copper Goertz speaker cable, which has made a very noticeable difference,,,but that will be another post. I setup the 12's system just a few weeks ago (wife wanted some things moved around) and did not think too much about it. I would use one system or the other for casual listening. Last week we went to see Mannheim Steamroller in Chicago and that is what started things. As I listened to a Mannheim cd, I noticed that on the Adcom with the 12c's system, the music seemed like "we were there". With the SDA's and the MC-100B, the same songs would sound compressed or dead. I started to think that there was something wrong with the 1c's , and thought about taking them apart to check things out or just selling them. After comparing both systems for the past week with my wife and a friend of mine I decided to switch amps from one setup to the other. After spending some time this evening I am happy to report that the SDA's are fine....but they do need a lot of power. Not necessarily for volume, but for detail, depth, clarity etc. The 12's running off the Mc100-b sounds ok, but I really feel they need more power. What is the conclusion?? The MC-100 is a nice amp for smaller speakers like 7's or even 10's, but for SDA's..... I think 100 watts of tube power per channel (minimum) is the way to go. Prior to purchasing the 100b amp I inquired on this forum and another audio forum about tube power for SDA's and I had people telling me that 20 watts per channel would be fine if I did not want to make my ears bleed. Hmm. I guess the only way to know for sure sometimes is to try things for yourself.

boston1450

That is what ive been thinking the last 3-4 days. The Denon POA2200 im using is fantastic. Plenty Plenty of power even more so than the 555 i had on my 2b's. Im not to hip on my preamp. After spending some time listening to it-it just doesnt seem where i want it to be. Ive used the POA direct cd to amp to SDA1c's & wow perfect. Ive been thinking a tube preamp might be my best bet. Mix it up some & ive heard this done with great results..... I listen at low / med volume maybe up as high as 70-87 tops db's but i still think they need the power

boston1450

Im no tech & i have to agree with that-with what i know & read/researched. I opened this thread with/about a 30wpc tube amp & im thinking to push a SDA1c it may need to be around 50wpc up. I am looking to change it up some. Weather it be amp. Or preamp. Im leaning toward a tube preamp now VS amp.... Maybe this http://m.ebay.com/itm/261474330152?nav=SEARCH

F1nut

I had people telling me that 20 watts per channel would be fine

Whoever told you that has no idea what they're talking about.

100 watts of tube power? Do you realize how much freaking power that really is?

Yep, just enough to get SDA's singing pretty. General rule of thumb, 100 tube watts is roughly equal to 200 SS watts. I drove 1C's with a 75 wpc tube amp....sounded good and all, but they really come to life with more power.

Faustin

100 watts of tube power? Do you realize how much freaking power that really is? The issue is not the power bro. Its the tubes - the preamp tubes to be exact. There is a reason you can spend more on tubes than what the amp itself costs. 50 watts of ultralinear tube power is just about all any speaker needs, except for the most demanding of speakers that can dip severely low.

I agree that tubes will make a difference in sound. I rolled in RCA black plate 6sn7 tubes and Raytheon black plate 12ax7 tubes. Everyone seems to have their favorite tubes and will debate for hours as to why one tube sounds better than another. But you really need to do a side by side comparison the way I did to hear the difference in the quality of sound. The only other explanation could be that RTA 12c's are much better sounding than SDA 1c's. That statement should start a good discussion. Don't get me wrong....I really like and enjoy both speakers and can only conclude that the lack of power makes a very noticeable difference in sound quality. Anyone in the Chicagoland area is welcome to pm me and stop by and hear for themselves.

Boston - I think you will really like a tube pre coupled to your ss amp. The little Dared SL-2000 I am using really made things shine when I replaced my ss Adcom pre with it. It may not be as super high end as some may want but I am enjoying it. I did replace the stock Chinese tubes with a Brimar rectifier and Mullard 12at7 tubes. Keep us posted as to which way you go.

Faustin

I agree that tubes will make a difference in sound. I rolled in RCA black plate 6sn7 tubes and Raytheon black plate 12ax7 tubes. Everyone seems to have their favorite tubes and will debate for hours as to why one tube sounds better than another. But you really need to do a side by side comparison the way I did to hear the difference in the quality of sound. The only other explanation could be that RTA 12c's are much better sounding than SDA 1c's. That statement should start a good discussion. Don't get me wrong....I really like and enjoy both speakers and can only conclude that the lack of power makes a very noticeable difference in sound quality. Anyone in the Chicagoland area is welcome to pm me and stop by and hear for themselves.

Boston - I think you will really like a tube pre coupled to your ss amp. The little Dared SL-2000 I am using really made things shine when I replaced my ss Adcom pre with it. It may not be as super high end as some may want but I am enjoying it. I did replace the stock Chinese tubes with a Brimar rectifier and Mullard 12at7 tubes. Keep us posted as to which way you go.

boston1450

^^^^ thanks. Im on a budget & trying to move up the chain in little steps. Im enjoying it too. Im taking my time & not jumping to quick if you know what i mean. My system sounds good now. So i will snoop around till i make the leap. Thats the fun of this hobby

tonyb

100 watts of tube power.....that doesn't come cheap. Maybe a hybrid design, but all in all SDA's need some juice behind them to sound their best.

voltz

Like Faustin I have Mc-100b & I have a Dared SL-200a I just got from Paul and have been using it with my Vincent Hybrid Amplifier (150wpc) and I still favor this setup over the MC-100b but just slightly...and it depends on my mood at the time

Faustin

Voltz - So it looks like from your signature that your are using the mc100b with your 10's. I am going to move my 10's over to the tubes and hook them up later today to see how it sounds. I think it will be a good marriage. And as far as the cost of 100 watts of tube power.......that will be a hard one to sell to the wife.

voltz

After Dave fixed my 10's up the right way I'm just loving their sound, especially with my Vinyl! I use my 10's whenever I am wanting to play 2-channel music.

Now all that may change when the CRS+ crossovers and cables are done and I add a dreadnaught to the mix. So far my CRS+'s sounded good with the Mc100b. If I had to keep just 1 setup only (talking equipment here) and get rid of the other I'm not sure which I would let go.

Schurkey

F1nut wrote: »

General rule of thumb, 100 tube watts is roughly equal to 200 SS watts.

I don't understand. Do tube watts have double the voltage, or double the current of SS watts, or some additional of each?

F1nut

Tube amps soft clip while SS amps hard clip, therefore making a tube amp seem more powerful than it is.