So thinking it’s time to upgrade my current setup to something probably more suited to the onken/multicell speakers
currently using a beard p50 and accuphase c200 pre. So feels like there’s room for improvement
Problem is I have no idea where to start and what I want or need.
So many options but never really heard anything for any extended period other than my beard p50.
How many watts do I actually need, I would guess then onken sensitivity is around 98/100db so no more than actaully a couple.
Would a set 45 work?
2a3/ 300b for more power.
211/845?
There’s also the appeal of keeping in the same vintage and then maybe rca or klangfilm etc to keep in style of cinema etc
There’s also the appeal of diy or shall I say part diy.
I have the facilities to make chassis and quite like the idea to build something and mount transformers, sockets etc for then have somebody to then actually build an amplifier.
Then valve or solid state rectifiers? separate chassis for power supply is probably better?
Then I guess I should look as it as whole package of pre and power
As you can probably tell by my ramblings by now I really have no clue what I want or where I should start looking for it.
Maybe just a thread to post links and pictures of random stuff to loose myself in another rabbit hole with.
Yamamoto A08S amp, nothing I’ve heard comes close to this.
I borrowed one from Nick at Emporium and it was amazing, couldn’t afford it at the time but recommended it to Ady who bought my tone scouts and he agrees its the best amp he’s had.
I’ve always thought that the requirements of a chonky bass driver are very different from a compression horn. You might want a PP amp with some damping for the bass, but a delicate SET higher up. Getting one amp to do it all is tricky, and tricky usually means expensive!
@Jim has found that a relatively cheap DIY flea power SET is better for his compression drivers than a big money commercial amp, but I’m sure it would be bloody awful if you asked it to run his system full range.
I picked up my beard p50 from repair from mark at malvern audio research. He had the p50 and one of his own things hooked up. His was better on everything apart from on one electronic track where the p50 just had more punch and dynamics.
Are you thinking of transporting the whole lot to Belgium at any point ? If you are then check that whatever you choose will be compatible with the AC supply there (it looks like it’s 50Hz, as here, and is ‘harmonised’ to 230V, also as here, but will probably be 220V in fact whereas we’re 240V in fact. I don’t know how the grounding works or whether their supply is reliably polarised Live/Neutral).
If I could trick myself into accepting this I guess I would save myself a whole lot of time with faff, but I think I just as much want a change and try some stuff out
I wouldn’t worry about that. Faff is a fractal thing. You can eliminate almost all your possible choices, leaving just a tiny amount of decision-making to do. Then when you start looking at that in detail you find that the remaining amount of complexity is still pretty much infinite .
I know some love the Audion gear but I’ve never considered them to be well built/designed and the components used are typically budget from what I’ve seen under the skirt. I’m not sure if the later stuff is better but the early 90s stuff got a bad reliability reputation at a local dealer I knew - he suggested under specified components. A 300B Se with basic PSU/OP transformer and circuit design will be a polar opposite of the KT88 PP of your beard in valve amp terms; I’d really try and see if you can borrow a 300B Se first to see if you like it’s presentation. With decent design and components you can restore a lot of dynamics and drive in a 300B but that requires a fair chunk of money and real estate IMHO. I’d seriously consider one of @sjs used KIT amps he has/had for sale if you must scratch the 300B itch as they look better built and have some real estate for mods. Mods are generally jolly expensive as are the valves so factor that in your decision if some tweaking if planned.
There’s so many different flavours of valve amps though so don’t disregard anything. Personally I think the sweetest/most balanced sound comes from EL84 based stuff - it seems to take a hell of a lot to make a bad one and they’re pretty easy/cheap to build a basic good sounding amp! I’ve not tried EL84 SE but I’d be interested in trying if it provides enough wattage.
Simple answer is hold a valve amp bake off, see what you like. I think there’s a lot of mileage in the separating the LF and amp and sticking PP (maybe even with a bit of feedback!) but that’s my taste.
I did a bunch of analysis on Onken designs back in the 90s, and the alignments were effectively a form of bass reflex for a specific range of drivers, and worked when the series DCR was very low i.e. output impedance of amp + cables + Xover or fully active i.e. high damping factor. Your Beard will likely be low output impedance, and probably plays to the needs of the Onken boxes.
Zero feedback SE triode amps have much higher output impedance, and if cables and Xover are low resistance this can move the alignment significantly i.e. I had to cover about 40% of the vent area to correct in my mini-Onken boxes.
I would suggest the best sounding low output Z power amp you can find for the Onkens, and a single ended 2A3/6B4G or 45 amp for everything higher up, and have the crossover as low as your midrange horn will allow
I think a bakeoff or at least hearing some more stuff is in order before making any real decisions. I’m not set on anything or any type of valve in particular just needs to sound good! I think I could get away with a couple of watts but worry I’ll lose some of the dynamics. A small tweak on the crossovers tonight and an hour of listening and the vu metres were barely moving.
You’re wrong if you think that a SET has no dynamics; the problem is that most don’t have enough power for the speakers or chunky enough iron for a bass response to 20Hz. You can overcome this, but it tends to be expensive!
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