Is a GOLDEN TUBE SE-100 amp very good?

candyliquor35m

I found this 100w tube amp locally for $850. Is this amp reliable? I read where someone had spent $600 modding a SE-40 which makes me wonder whether these amps are reliable.

Thanks

55LS70

Golden Tube amps do have a reputation for being unreliable. From what I've heard, from other owners, is that while the design, workmanship and transformers are of high quality the caps, resisters, bias pots and etc. leave much to be desired. They were made by a company called Solo Electronics and are no longer made now. As far as I know Solo Electronics no longer exists.

I personally have a SE-85 (I planned to get rid of it soon) and after listening to it for about a year I concur with the above statements. It has great sound quality in the mids and highs, accompanied with a large soundstage, but lacks a lot in the bass. Now I realize that this is the case with most tube amps but the SE-85, at least this one, the bass is weaker and considerably "mushier" than most EL34 PP amps I've heard. Also, I had trouble keeping the tubes biased. Now, with that being said, maybe replacing the caps and resisters with ones of higher quality and specs might alleviate these problems. I just about pulled the trigger of modifying this amp but at the last moment I went with a different one. (I'm not sure that I made the right choice there.)

I don't know if an SE-100 suffers from the same problems as my SE-85 but I have heard of a few having resister problems and burning up tubes. I think the SE-100 has 10 EL-34's. Four EL34's on each channel for output with another one serving as a driver. I would think that would be a little pricey to retube, especially if they were burning up on a regular basis. To modify mine I was thinking of sending it to a place called Soniccraft. If my memory serves me correctly I think their website is www.soniccraft.com. They had built a pretty good reputation for rebuilding and supplying kits to rebuild the SE-40's. I emailed them, approximatly a year or two ago, about modifying my SE-85 and received an answer stating that they had just started working on that model. (I do not know if they ever did anything with the SE-100.) The cost they quoted me for going through the amp was about $500. At that time they had really only modified the SE-40's but once that particuliar model amp had it's inferior components replaced it becomes, from what I've read and heard, a very respectable piece of audio equipment. Please bear in mind that the SE-40 utilizes Class A circuitry while the SE-100 and SE-85 have Class AB circuits.

Also, there is, or at least was, a forum that deals with Golden Tube Audio amps. A google search should be able to locate them for you. Both the Golden Audio forum and Soniccraft existed about a year ago and hopefully they still do.

I hope this little bit of information helps you in your decission and good luck in your endeavor. Regards,

candyliquor35m

I did go ahead and purchase this amp and will post pics in the Vintage Speaker forum since that's the forum I frequest most since I have Polk SDA's. The seller (2nd owner) claims he had few or no problems with it but the original owner kept a repair log in the manual and it says he replaced 5 tubes and 2 fuses in 1 1/2 years.

It is sounding sweet especially since I've never had or heard a tube amp before. It doesn't have the punch of my 375wpc carver but that is to be expected. As much as I tried I couldn't resist what seemed like a good price for a 100w tube amp with no scratches and therefore a 9/10 due to age only. I'm crossing my fingers he'll produce the original box next week as he promised.

55LS70 thanks for the great detailed synopsis and good luck with your SE-85. The seller was overwhelmed with emails and probably could have sold 10 of these and had the amp all but sold to someone in Dallas but preferred to sell it locally which to me are all good signs.

Have a great weekend everyone!

EDIT: Here is the ad that made me question their reliability
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SE-40 heavily modified by Jeff Glowacki at Sonic Craft this May '05. Total cost of mods and new tubes = $600.

40BB, 40RC and 40PS mods.

40BB mods addressed long-term survivability issues. Replaced 19 resistors, HD replacement rectifier, 6 precision multi-turn bias trimmers, power switch and 8 coupling capacitors.

40RC changes included high-performance capacitor upgrades (replaced all 19 electrolytic capacitors (excluding power supply) for a 20-30 year life. Also included sonicap bypass with black Gate NX and replacement of 6 power capacitors.

40PS - High performance power supply upgrade. Replaced caps, 4 new state of the art rectifier diodes for the B+, 6 new centering resistors, 6 high-grade Panasonic capacitors with > 2X the factory power supply capacitance plus 2 large soniccap bypasses.

I also bought a matched set of 6 Electro-Harmonix 6L6 Platinum tubes plus 2 Electro-Harmonix 6SN7.

This is a great amp and Jeff has basically replaced the entire inner workings - making it as bulletproof and as long lasting as it can be. The amp sounds great and the mid range is just fantastic.

I am selling because I bought some $3500 speakers at a price I could not refuse. They need more power that this amp can provide so I will be sad to see it go.
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