A few more recent pics of the big Sound Lab rig.....

 

 

The amps are EL 34 based Wolcott 220s.  The output and power trannies on these monoblocks are huge.  Each amp weighs over 60 pounds.

 

 

I've re-tubed them with Mullard Blackburn plant xf2s. 

 

 

 

Joe

 

 

 Might just be enough to make the HE-6 sit up and take notice...................................

Mmmmm, beautiful photo of the tubes.
 

That's about $3,600 worth of tubes   Makes the six Tung-Sol black-glass round plate 6SN7GT's in my Cary preamp seem positively rational

 

VERY nice rig, there, Sanderman!

Sanderman, Im curious; how do those blocks on top of the transformers affect the performance?

My hunch is that it tries to damp the 60Hz [50Hz possible] (and possible harmonics) vibration of the transformers.

He must feel the transformers introduce vibrational noise in his signal chain. 
I'm curious if this is the actual reason.

Those are my ancient VPI Bricks that I repainted to match the SRA bases. They're iron bricks inside a thin wood skin. They're great mass loading dampers on anything as each weighs 5 or 6 pounds or so. They slightly improve the sense of focus and bass articulation. But frankly, the SRA bases do far more for the sonics. Those are made by a company that started out doing government contracts for isolation of vibration and sound attenuation on nuclear submarines. The rack is made by SRA too. THey call it a CRAZ rack, though I'm not sure why. The top dark shelves on the rack weigh well over 100 pounds each and are are isolated by bladders filled with a gel-like damping material mounted to the cherry rack frame. If you nudge one of the rack shelves it oscillates for a few seconds at around 5 or 7 hertz, just like a giant suspended belt drive turntable. The rack and bases are phenomenal at isolation. The character of the systems sound doesn't change from a whisper to full volume. Even fully cranked, subtle detail comes through without any smearing due to feedback or vibration.

Joe

 

 

If I can take a line from a video:  "I bet you could even listen to your music in an earthquake".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs1aUws0Lrs

Sanderman.......Do the transformers on the Wolcott amplifiers make any noise from vibration, either with or without the VPI Bricks?

No

 

Joe
 

Nice Sanderman,  Question or two what Sound labs do you own.....and are those preamps hiding under you gorgeous Rack...  1 more? what is the Gordan Rankin piece??? My good friend has the huge sound Labs that have been reworked by the factory in the back part(please excuse lack of my knowledge about this area)   where the Transformers are and the power and speaker connectors go.....His system is one of the best I've heard, (that he himself owns)........I'm sure yours is right there.......OK one more ? Didn't  Wolcott amplifiers make some huge V-8 shaped amp "Mono Blocks)???   

I am humbled by the pictures of the systems shown in this post, but here is my modest system: 

 

 

Not shown are my Virtue Audio Piano CD player and Static Headroom X-feed module.  My K1000's are also used with this setup.

 

Ron

 

Pictures Of Your High End System?

HiFlight, are you using the Indeed as a preamp for the Virtue? Pay no attention to the haters, the HE-6 is near the highest of the high end price-wise and represents the absolute pinnacle of high end headphone performance, so congrats!

 

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