kitch29's System | Virtual Listening Room

Mullard Innards

76 pre-amp 'beauty shot'

Old-time Radio Inspired Casework

Voice of Gene Wilder: "Give my creation life!"

Aikido Dual Mono pre-amp

The concrete blocks are gone! Stands are now sand boxes that make a major improvement in SQ over a suspended floor

Meet the New Rack, same as the old rack (shelves)

Description

It's a joy to come into the Front Room and play records on a system that, with two exceptions, I built myself.

The Mullards and the 76 Pre-amp are the mainstays. The 55 push-pull watts of the circuit have nearly the same tone and texture of single-ended with the added benefits of a higher damping factor and the headroom to portray a full orchestra. The 76 adds to the soundstaging goodness and while it has just a hint of old-timey caramel coloration, it also unravels dense orchestral textures beautifully.

Speaking of old age, anyone else still around from the pre-moderator old days?

Components Toggle details

- VPI Traveler
With ZYX R50 Bloom Cartridge
- Cinemag 3440AH SUT
Switchable Impedance
- SM Brown Amplifier Co. Caravaggio Phono Stage
Adjustable input impedance, Tube regulated power supply, RCA Passive circuit adapted and built by my friend and mentor Steve Brown
- JE Labs 76 Line Stage
My first solo, built from schematic, point to point project and does it sing!
- John Tucker/Dan Schmalle/Steve Brown UX-45 Main Amplifier
Single-ended, pseudo dual-mono, direct-coupled, parafeed circuit with Magnequest Plate Chokes and Output transformers.
This was my first DIY project with Steve Brown. We each built one often working side-by-side at his bench while he talked me through the tricky bits.
- Tubelab Simple SE partial kit
The only circuit board kit I still have and often use which I like so much I built another recently from scratch, all point to point. A tube rollers dream! 440 vDC B+ and a 560 Ohm Cathode resistor allow switching EL-34s, 6550s, Kt-66, 77 and 88, 6L6
- Diyaudio.com Mullard 5-20 KT-88 Mono Blocks
With the KT-88s and modern parts including solid state rectification it's really a 4-55. This 5-20 circuit was created in the mid-Fifties by Mullard to introduce their EL-34.

The guys at Diyaudio.com, Eli Duttman, Boy Wonder, Taj, Johann Pottgeier and others collaborated, as they do on many designs. Steve Brown and I decided to collaborate on this as we did on the 45 amp. After 2 years of correspondence and finally my trip to Portland they were done this past October.

With Steve's guidance the EF-86 input tubes are wired in Triode, the Negative Feedback is removed and compensated for by input resistor padding. Gold Lion KT-88s make these powerful amps yield single-ended tone and texture while providing massive damping and drive to the JBL woofers.
- Pi Speakers 4 Pi
Although I haven't frequented Audiogon in quite awhile I was here at the beginning as I turned my woodworking hobby to speaker building in 2001. High Efficiency was always my interest and I played around with all the JBL, Altec-Lansing, Emilar, etc. products until in 2008 I finally built the 4 Pis and got off the Merry Go Round. They do everything right.

Comments 7

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Very nice system. The Pi's and the power-amps deserve a better support though ;-) More like the front-end.

jandewitt December 01, 2016 14:30

Owner

JG - It doesn't take any special skill or knowledge to get started, just desire. 10 years ago I couldn't identify a resistor or what it did. Go to Tubelab at the Diyaudio.com site and look at the posts about the Simple SE amplfier. If building it interests you, spend your next $400 upgrade dollars on the board and parts instead. The info is so complete, from what tools to get to how to fill the board, you can't miss. Then you'll be hooked.

kitch29 February 20, 2016 02:53

Your components look very nicely built, I am sure they sound great as well. As I have to resign myself to buying components and modding them very minor, through tube rolling, fuse and cable changes my hat off to you for a well put together system!

jg_meyer February 19, 2016 23:16

As a member who espouses and enjoys DIY ventures, I find much to admire with your pre and amp builds. Yours is a system I'd truly like to hear.

As in your case, age is also affecting my participation level in projects that I take on, but I'm easily able to swap out amps whenever I like, due to having separate interconnects and speaker cables for each amp (SET 300B and DIY Class D amps).

I wish you many years of continued listening enjoyment, and congratulations on your achievements.

Regards,

Dan

islandmandan February 18, 2016 01:37

Love it.

devilboy February 17, 2016 22:52

Nice DIY builds! regards Jet

jetrexpro February 17, 2016 13:56

Very nice set....tubes heaven.

korton February 17, 2016 12:44

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