Shiny brand new second hand things in my system today

Impulse Ta’us. Modded a bit. I took them to Scalford last year in the room opposite @htm_1968 and friends.

They made an inoffensive sound in the background while we all got shitfaced on cognac, bourbon and whiskey from the room next door.

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Inoffensive my arse. They were adequately raucous when primed with live loop to clear the room in seconds. Loved that wall of noise and crunching guitars…

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Nice looking system. How are the KT 120’s sound?

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Hard to say. Different yes but not massively. Think the EL34’s in make it slightly warmer, the KT120’s a slightly bigger bolder sound.

Fun couple of rooms: KLF, Morse code records, empty bottles and a feeling I’d missed out…

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My last two days proper drinking*. Shared with some (adjectives required) blokes, adequate kit, decent booze and really great music. That Saturday night was a great laugh, especially when Rudi started practicing his ‘Would you like a sweetie’ routine…

:grinning:

*until my post-yellow return to the keg…

Sounded better playing Loop’s cover of ‘Mother Sky’ on 12" on Sunday.

I’ve got a cassette somewhere that the band signed for me after a gig at Hull Uni…

Not exactly in my system but a handy addition. I recently bought an old but working valve tester which seems to work well for testing the Gm (effectively the gain) of valves and which, in the case of small signal valves, is a handy attribute to be able to match whether it’s the internal elements of double triodes to each other or indeed matching one double triode to another.

However, for power valves, particularly if used in auto bias push pull amps, it’s also handy to be able to measure the current drawn at a particular bias point particularly if at the working voltages it’ll experience in the actual amplifier. An unmatched push pull pair will set up a DC condition in the output transformer leading to it becoming magnetised which in turn leads to increased distortion & effectively lower useful output power. So a pair of output valves matched for current draw is desirable.

I’ve had a rough & ready jig lashed together on a chassis for this job but it required me to be measuring voltages at various points & doing a calculation of the current drawn through the bias resistor at the desired HT.


6550 under typical conditions.

So I built this little box (above) incorporating 3 sockets allowing me to test octal based pentodes/tetrodes such as the 6550, KT88, EL34, 5881, and smaller 9 pin types (specifically the EL84). I’ve also included a UX-4 socket to allow testing of the 2A3 & 300B power triodes with a switch to select between 2.5V and 5V for their particular filament needs.

What these pictures don’t show is the regulated HT supply (Solartron) that allows me to dial up the desired HT voltage (read on the blue meter) and which also gives me 6.3V for the filament.

The 9V battery at the rear powers the displays. The red display on the right shows current drawn in mA. The battery will be going inside in a holder when one arrives tomorrow.


EL84 under test.

This is a handy thing for me. Not especially high tech but It was a p.i.t.a setting up voltmeters etc to do this job previously. This makes this particular aspect of valve matching that bit easier.

It’s effectively this.

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I was about to say it looks a bit too professional.

Then I saw the display power supply :smile:

My new “full range” drivers arrived yesterday I had prepped the baffles to mount from the front.
but found initially them flat sounding so I remounted from the back - They seem to work best with the little OTL amp.
Bass drivers are my new RCF 18"ers

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I rather like the proportions of that setup Andy. The baffles look good :+1:

We are prepping up for a house move this year (hopefully) so this is something slightly more domestic than I normally have. I am using the chrome cast digital OP at the moment perhaps it is slightly lacking but it is not on the critical path of making the system fail. That there is a £800 quid hi fi

If you fancy a bid.

[quote]Lot 35W
An Abbey Road Studios EMI TG12345 MK IV recording console used between 1971-1983, housed in Studio 2, the console which Pink Floyd used to record their landmark album, The Dark Side of the Moon.

The EMI TG 12345 MK IV console has been referred to as the greatest console ever constructed due to the collaboration with Abbey Road and EMI engineers, with the production of every component being built to military precision. Abbey Road studios was the recording studio of choice for experimental and progressive artists to use throughout the 1960s-1970s and is still a busy venue today. The sound recording of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is testament to the superior engineering of this recording equipment.[/quote]

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23878/lot/35/

I was going to bid for that until I read the small print…“Speakers in the illustrated image not included” :rolling_eyes:

Oh well, their loss.

Not shiny or brand new but bought some nice Gik bass traps yesterday - been using some cheap foam wedge traps for the last 10 years which worked well, but these are clearly a significant upgrade.:slight_smile:

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I love those speakers. :heart_eyes:

Bit cheap for you Dave. Maybe get a pair for the garage system?:grinning:

I have always liked them. How much did you pay.

I saw there new speakers at Munich last year. Completely different design and not in a good way.