Santa came late but I love him all the same. TUBES!!!

gidrah · January 2003

Well actually it was UPS and Santa may have had a little help from my wife. She in-turn may have had help from another Polk member that I will leave anonymous.

I am the proud new owner of a used 35 w/ch EL-34 based tube amp. Wahoo!

What kind you ask? Well, here you go.
http://home.indy.net/~gregdunn/dynaco/components/ST70/index.html

Mine is much newer and sexier than the one pictured, but the electronics are pretty much the same. I haven't heard it yet, but as soon as I wake-up tomorrow I'll be seeing that warm glow. I saw it a little tonight and I liked it.

Anonymous Polk member(s): If you would like to make yourself known I'll leave that up to you. All I can say is thanks for this; if you had any part in it, and everything else. The wife knocked one out of the ballpark this year. I don't think she coulda done it without you! Homerun maybe.

madmax · January 2003

That is awesome Gidrah! Is it your first one? Make sure you have a speaker load on it before you power it up and don't be surprised if at first it doesn't sound too good until it warms up for an hour. I'm very excited for you.
madmax

gidrah · January 2003

Yeah. The cherry is officially popped. I powered it up for about 3 seconds just to make sure all the tubes lit.

Single drivers on tubes! Mmmmm! I should go to sleep so that tomorrow happens that much sooner.

madmax · January 2003

It would be a good idea to make sure the fuses are close to the value they should be and to have a few extras on hand. Every now and then all the tube amps I've played with will blow one. Especially when they have been sitting for awhile. Even one of my manuals says to expect this.
madmax

TroyD · January 2003

Mark,

Glad it worked out for you.

If I remember, Ken Swauger was in to tweaking those amps and selling them at one point. If you ever wanted to tweak it, I'd check with him.

BDT

madmax · January 2003

Gidrah,
There was one song in particular that sold me on tubes. Cheryl Crow had this song which absolutely won me over. It is on the CD which has "All I wanna do, is love somebody. The song that really showed me what tubes could do is a semi-rap song that says "I got a 4 wheel drive, I drive it on the parkway, when I get drunk I park it in the driveway". There are thousands of sounds in the backround. I had grown used to hearing this barage of sounds in the backround on this song. Not one of which you could distinguish. The first play on my first tube amp displayed every single sound as a separate distinguishable sound. Sorry I don't remember the album title. This would be worth looking for to show you the detail which tubes can provide. Absolutely awesome! Best wishes on your new amp! If you send me your address I'll be happy to copy the CD for you and send it to you. Of course you have to listen to it first on a solid state amp then later on the tube amp to appreciate the difference.
madmax

gidrah · January 2003

I listened to it today. Pretty sweet sounding little amp. I used my JVC sub room pre-outs. I can't wait to give it a good listen with a regular preamp.

madmax · January 2003

We all expect a review! My finger nails are almost all chewed off at this point. Let us know your opinion.
madmax

madmax · January 2003

Gidrah,
I don't know if you are a novice or an old timer to tubes. I've been into it for a few years now. I just plugged in a set of pre-amp tubes for the evenings listening and got to wondering about where you were. I didn't mention anything about biasing. I'm not sure of the particular method used to bias your amp or the required settings. You should make sure the bias is set properly. Otherwise you could be demanding too much from your tubes. I have done a lot of upgrading to my amps because they were all used and several of them came with multiple upgraded tubes where the previous user upgraded several times and sent me all the old tubes. For example, the Sovtec tubes seem to be the **** but they seem to make mine sound more like a ss amp whereas some of the cheaper chineese tubes really deliver something special through the midrange. Some of the other differences are that the standard 12AX7 preamps have a sound to them but the telefunkin ones have another. To go even further the 5751 replacement preamps have a lower gain but the sound difference is significant. How they relate to the power tubes being used is unique. For example, using the 5751's with the chineese tubes make them sound a little quieter but when you mate the 5751's with Sovtec's the sound becomes very unique. All I'm saying is that all this stuff interacts differently with each other and I have a small amount of experience and I would be happy to let you know what I have learned to date, not that it is the absolute truth or whatever. Good luck!
madmax

gidrah · January 2003

I'll be doing a full review in the future. Unfortunately my 2 ch rig is in the upstairs apartment and the speakers I most want to listen to it with (4" full-range periscopes) are on the HT rig with the HT substitutes on the sealed front porch. I have some other speakers around, but the full-rangers are the freshest to my ears. Then again these haven't seen the amps or preamps I'd be using so..... Like I said, in the future.

This is my first and only piece of tube equipment. I wanted to learn as much as I could before I got one. I haven't come close to learning enough. Someday I'll be swapping tubes around and such, but not yet. For that matter I might even find out how to bias mine. I think once it's set it's good for the tubes' life. But to be honest, I haven't a freakin' clue.

This amp has been updated but I don't think it's been modified. Right now it has 2 RCA 7199, and Westinghouse for the rest.

Initial impressions when hooked to 5.1 receiver pre-outs: WOW! The music was very nice. The harshness of a saxophone is gone, while the realism and sense of presence remains. Ihaven't had the chance to compare vocals, soundstage, imaging or vocals yet, but from what I did hear there was no significant gain or loss. Metallica - Master of Puppets did seem to tighten up a bit. I also noticed this with jazz and classical, but I may have just been wanting it.

madmax · January 2003

I'm sure there is a load of info about that amp out there. So long as it has been biased and the power tubes have remained in the same sockets you are probably good. I re-bias mine every few months but they never drift far enough to be concerned. It only requires a little screwdriver and a multimeter. Mine happens to have little connectors on the top of the unit to connect to. No big deal.

I hear from some others a little dissatisfaction with the bass sound of most tubes, it really is a little different, but I have fallen in love with the sound. Kinda bouncy and loose.

I think the EL-34's are the best sounding. Great choice! The Tube Asylum is a great forum to read about tubes and pick up a lot of info.

madmax

gidrah · January 2003

Yep! I've read that I should try to trim off the bottom on this amp. I'm not surprised. Tubes just don't have the damping. Even the wackos use SS for their subs when needed. This is why I want to pair them with the periscopes and a powered sub @ a corrrespondingly high roll-off. The other DIY chapter.

I've been all over the tube asylum. There's alot to learn.

Santa came late but I love him all the same. TUBES!!!

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