[whirlwind]

  New C3g > 6BL7 amp
 

A real beauty Glenn.....this will sound wonderful 

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

Whilst listening to Slayer with the T1

 
Could you give this tube noob a rundown of this amp and tube compliment?  It looks quite impressive...

 

[Rossliew]

Could you give this tube noob a rundown of this amp and tube compliment?  It looks quite impressive...

This, my friend is a world renowned Glenn OTL amp but it's one of his earlier models. If I'm not mistaken the newer ones use better transformers. Yet this is one fine sounding amp and very flexible in terms of tube rolling. It's traditionally paired with high impedance headphones but with the switch to use 5998/6080 power tubes, there is greater current capability to drive the more sensitive low impedance headphones.

Others here like Gibosi have one which utilizes different tube configuration and yet provides even more flexibility in tube rolling. This is one of the best OTL head amps you can get and at a very reasonable price for the high build quality Glenn provides. Which all translates into longer build times.

My version uses the following tube combo for high impedance headphone usage :

5UG (rectifier)/6AS7 ( power)/ 6SN7 (driver)

And the following for low impedance usage :

5UG/5998 or 6080 (power)/6SN7

 

[Xcalibur255]

  Tyrell, I would love to see a pic also 

 
How are you liking the Ether....it is the next can on my list...I bought a semi - vintage RS1 and was planning to use some of that cash on the Ether.

 
I wasn't sold at first, but I'm really starting to like it now.  If I switch back to the LCD-2 at this point it's painfully obvious how inaccurate their tonal balance is compared to Ether.  I think what Tyll said about the Ether-C also applies to the open back Ether now that it has the 1.1 verison tuning:  you almost instinctively start to just trust what your ears are telling you because you know you can trust the messenger.  The two gripes that are common about this headphone, namely that they are a little light in the bass and a little bright in the treble, is not what I'm hearing at all.  They're actually smoother and punchier than the LCD-2 in my setup.  I may explore a silver cable for the Ether since my fears of too much treble are definitely put to bed, upgrading to silver from the DAC to my amps was a very positive change all around and made me think about my cables a lot more in general.  More than anything they sound very neutral/balanced without being boring or sterile at all, and are a general step up in performance all around from the LCD-2.  The imaging in particular is much better, I never realized how bad the LCD-2 was at this until now.  I can localize every individual note in a recording precisely in 3-dimensional space while listening to the Ethers.
 
The only drawback I'm feeling at this point is that they may actually be too efficient/sensitive.  They're almost unusable with the Inspire IHA-1, there is a substantial amount of magnetic field hum in the right channel that was never an issue with my other headphones.  On the Glenn 45 amp I have no noise issues due to the amp itself (Glenn really outdid himself with how quiet he got this amp), but I'm discovering several of my 45 tubes have noise and microphonics issues that I couldn't hear before which is a bummer.  The music is already quite loud with the volume at only 9 o'clock.  I think in their effforts to make planars easier to drive these days manufacturers might actually be going too far with it now, considering that other design trade-offs happen in order to achieve it I think they need to retreat back to a solid middle ground at this point.
 
I should note the Yggrasil is a big part of the magic I'm hearing.  It took the performance of the whole system up in a big way.  Between that and the cable upgrades I'm at a whole different level in terms of resolution now.  It was my gut feeling that Glenn's amp was being held back by my DAC, and I was right, the 45 is really an incredible amp with the new and improved signal chain no longer representing a bottleneck for it.
 
As for photos...... I'll see if I can figure something out.  There's really no place to lay the Ether so it's in the picture with the amp, the cart everything sits on is pretty small.  That and I'm really not a good photo taker. 

 

[Xcalibur255]

Anyone can share if the LCD2 pre fazor would be well driven by the OTL on 5998 setting?

I primarily listened to my OTL this way with this headphone.  I always enjoyed it a lot.  It can sound just a bit soft in some ways depending upon your driver choice, or if you're using to hear the LCD-2 from a solid state amp, but the detail is there and it plays to the headphone's strengths more than you might expect actually.

 

[Rossliew]

I primarily listened to my OTL this way with this headphone.  I always enjoyed it a lot.  It can sound just a bit soft in some ways depending upon your driver choice, or if you're using to hear the LCD-2 from a solid state amp, but the detail is there and it plays to the headphone's strengths more than you might expect actually.

Thanks for that. I just read your post above on the Ether as well. I too found it to be a bit light sounding and not really fun sounding when I listened briefly at a local meet. And that was with the Yggy/Rag stack.

 

[lukeap69]

Few more pics of my OTL Darna from Glenn. Hope @2359glenn doesn't mind me posting these.
 
This one is impressive (I am a photographer so I am not easily impressed with photos but this one is)
 

 
 

 
 
Look at that neat Lundahl trafo!

 
 

 
 

 
I hope to receive this bad boy soon!
 
Thanks Glenn.
 
Arnold

 

[TonyNewman]

Nice pics - thanks for posting

 
Sharing amp porn is to be encouraged.

 

[Xcalibur255]

I don't have my KenRad UX245 Globes in my amp right now, and you gotta have globes in your 45 if you are going to share photos of it. 
 
Really looking forward to the day I try that again too.  It sounds wonderful right now, and the globes are a solid step up over the ST tubes I'm using currently.  Very exciting.
 
I'm really considering trying a pair of EML 45's too, can't decide between that or buying another good pair of globes.  I'd like to have something top tier to fall back on in case a tube goes bad.

 

[gibosi]

As I am quite liking the GEC U18/20 / Sylvania 6BX7GT combo, have been digging deep into my stash to find drivers to retry. Based on a posting by Jamato8 in the 6SN7 thread sometime ago, I had tried a couple RCA 76 but didn't much care for them with 6AS7/6080/5998. However, in this configuration, they sound great.
 
Interestingly, these are fairly old, manufactured in 1943, and they are dead quiet with the original Glenn OTL transformer, which is icing on the cake.
 

 

[2359glenn]

I have tried using the #76 tube in amps years ago and all of them were noisy couldn't use them.
Maybe I had a bunch of crappy tubes will  have to try again.

 

[2359glenn]

Plan on building a amp for myself hadn't built one for me in 10 years.
Going to squeeze it in after I ship Khragon's amp.
It will be a EL3N driving a EL3N these tubes supposed to sound like a #45 so it will be like a 45 driving a 45.
They are not direct heated so easy to work with. With Lundahl transformers power and output.
Maybe send it to Tyrell to audition he can appreciate the sound of a 45.
 
Glenn

 

[gibosi]

I purchased a quad of RCA 76, all with the same date code, K4E. While two were noisy, these two are dead quiet. So if anyone is interested, it might be a good idea to get more than two...
 
And this is the adapter:
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-Dual-RCA-76-TO-6SN7GT-B65-CV1988-tube-converter-adapter-/201398487020

 

[whirlwind]

  As I am quite liking the GEC U18/20 / Sylvania 6BX7GT combo, have been digging deep into my stash to find drivers to retry. Based on a posting by Jamato8 in the 6SN7 thread sometime ago, I had tried a couple RCA 76 but didn't much care for them with 6AS7/6080/5998. However, in this configuration, they sound great.
 
Interestingly, these are fairly old, manufactured in 1943, and they are dead quiet with the original Glenn OTL transformer, which is icing on the cake.
 

Thank you for the pic and the info, Ken.

  Plan on building a amp for myself hadn't built one for me in 10 years.
Going to squeeze it in after I ship Khragon's amp.
It will be a EL3N driving a EL3N these tubes supposed to sound like a #45 so it will be like a 45 driving a 45.
They are not direct heated so easy to work with. With Lundahl transformers power and output.
Maybe send it to Tyrell to audition he can appreciate the sound of a 45.
 
Glenn

Nice to see you building an amp for yourself, Glenn.
 
I really like the sound of the EL3N in my amp as driver tubes.
 
In your application, I can only imagine 

 

[2359glenn]

 

  As I am quite liking the GEC U18/20 / Sylvania 6BX7GT combo, have been digging deep into my stash to find drivers to retry. Based on a posting by Jamato8 in the 6SN7 thread sometime ago, I had tried a couple RCA 76 but didn't much care for them with 6AS7/6080/5998. However, in this configuration, they sound great.
 
Interestingly, these are fairly old, manufactured in 1943, and they are dead quiet with the original Glenn OTL transformer, which is icing on the cake.
 

Thank you for the pic and the info, Ken.

  Plan on building a amp for myself hadn't built one for me in 10 years.
Going to squeeze it in after I ship Khragon's amp.
It will be a EL3N driving a EL3N these tubes supposed to sound like a #45 so it will be like a 45 driving a 45.
They are not direct heated so easy to work with. With Lundahl transformers power and output.
Maybe send it to Tyrell to audition he can appreciate the sound of a 45.
 
Glenn

Nice to see you building an amp for yourself, Glenn.
 
I really like the sound of the EL3N in my amp as driver tubes.
 
In your application, I can only imagine 

Plan on having a switch on the output tubes hooked up triode or pentode .  Triode 1 watt and pentode 4.5 watts.
It will sound better in triode but putting the switch in case I want more power for inefficient phones.