Twelve EL84s and a couple of ECC81s forming (I think…) some kind of input buffer.
BB did the same amp in monobloc form, which I’d be tempted to to try were it not for the abject lack of serviceability.
…but even the two together have fewer valves than one AR mono!
Perfect amps for this weather mind!
Yes,the AR ones look nuts,I’d be scared to turn them on
Igor, the switch…
I used to sell those (very occasionally) when I worked in one of the Tottenham Ct Rd shops quite a while ago.
I seem to remember them being a bit pipe and slippers, but that may have been down to my lack of experience / system matching. We also sold Linn, Alphason, MF, Kef, Quad and the usual range of Japanese gear, so the Beards were in a very small minority then and my judgement may have been skewed by the other stuff I got to listen to…
The M70s were nice, quite a bit better than the P35 iirc
8 x 6550 in ‘push’ and another 8 in ‘pull’ 
.
The idea of paralleling up the biggest ‘audio’ valve you can lay your hands on does go a long way back though. GEC’s datasheet for their KT88 includes the circuit for a 400W monoblock based on two quintets of the valves. It says, in passing, that if you want more power you can just add more pairs of valves. The link is to Issue 3 of the document and that’s dated June 1961.
At some point (70’s or 80’s perhaps ?) Maplin sold a kit of parts for this amp, or at least they advertised it. I don’t know if they ever sold any. You wouldn’t just need to be strong …
Didn’t realise anyone sold valve amps on tottenham court road
I got a job at one close to Oxford Street,was due to start but overslept and got sacked before I started.
It was the day of the poll tax riots,and my birthday,so probably just as well I overslept
Surely you’d need some kind of soft-start just to stop the mains transformer’s inrush current from ‘nuisance tripping’ your house’s main RCD ? The mains fuse in the amp would need to be the right kind of time-delayed one too.
Some time toward the end of @FatCuntTroller 's tenure at the WAM, James rang me and asked if I wanted to come along to a Audio Research demo at KJ West One organised by Ricardo of Absolute Sounds.
It was a strange day, a lot of the HiFi press were there and it was a canapes and champagne do.
I remember we were talking to Ricardo when this chap walked through the door and Ricardo with barely an ‘excuse me’ rushed off to meet and greet.
‘Who is that?’ I wondered.
Turned out he was a journalist who wrote a column for the FT called ‘What to spend it on’.
Probably a bit more influential with high rollers than the Wam!
There was certainly enough expensive gear in the shop.
Anyhow some bloke from Audio Research had come over from the US to give the demo
Can’t remember which high powered valve amp it was (well over 100Wpc) but partnered with those speakers it was very underwhelming.
Nice fat cables though!
Funniest bit was watching James ask a question and get patronised by one of the Journos 
In Transylvania we have at least 50 000 volts DC ripping down from stormy skies. It’s alive! It’s alive!
Mark Lamarr wannabe looks like a right twat.
Hard to take that system seriously with no cable lifters
Kind of ok with Mark Lamar, I’ll take that over personality socks or ‘fun’ tie guy.
Exactly I always liked mark lamarr particularly his radio show, he clearly enjoyed music
Like Mark Lamar but some twat trying to emulate his 1940s cheeky cockney conman look isn’t.
Turned up jeans, skinny braces, white shirt, brylcream quiff and reg kray glasses are just cunty.
His 50s shows on radio 2 were very well curated.
Think this guy is from the US? He’s got a look.
According to my phone it was 10 years ago but I am trying to work out when James sold the Wam,
2015 Scalford (the one I showed at) was under him, 2016 was post sale IIRC.
Edit: Companies House says that it was 2nd April 2015. And also that it is now officially dead.
Thanks
I was being lazy, I still have the Scalford room allocation spreadsheets on file, I should have checked
I bought a Wam polo shirt that year.
Oh, how my life has fallen 
