bcowen
Headphoneus Supremus
Friends don't let friends GE.Are you saying that bcowen did not offer his stash of unwanted GE beam power pentodes to you for the PrimaLuna?
Friends don't let friends GE.Are you saying that bcowen did not offer his stash of unwanted GE beam power pentodes to you for the PrimaLuna?
Except for certain power tubes.Friends don't let friends GE.
The GE 6550A was the only tube one could use in the Fender 400PS bass amplifier. All others...huge melt down.Except for certain power tubes.
Furman P-1800 or similar.The silent killer of modern tube gear is filament voltage. Manufacturers specify numbers like 6.3V +/- 5% for filament voltage, but, due to live voltage norms climbing to over 120V [my line voltage is a constant 123.5V], the filament voltage winds up being 7 V or more. This will shorten the life of the tube because the heater runs hotter, so the thermionic emission is higher, etc., and the tube life is severely reduced. Many amps actually have resistors in the filament leads to certain tubes to drop the voltage and gain lower noise and longer life [see Citation II input stage]. That is why large transmitters have adjustable filament voltage to assure that that expensive power tube is operating at the proper point.
The 6550A is also a great sounding tube in hifi amplifiers.The GE 6550A was the only tube one could use in the Fender 400PS bass amplifier. All others...huge melt down.
It's also the best for use in the Ampeg SVT too.
Early SVT's ran 660 volts on the plates of 6146B finals. Later SVT's were running 695 plate volts on 6550's!
Not to be pedantic, but being pedantic: it'd be more correct to say "the silent killer of vintage tube gear is filament voltage."The silent killer of modern tube gear is filament voltage. Manufacturers specify numbers like 6.3V +/- 5% for filament voltage, but, due to live voltage norms climbing to over 120V [my line voltage is a constant 123.5V], the filament voltage winds up being 7 V or more. This will shorten the life of the tube because the heater runs hotter, so the thermionic emission is higher, etc., and the tube life is severely reduced. Many amps actually have resistors in the filament leads to certain tubes to drop the voltage and gain lower noise and longer life [see Citation II input stage]. That is why large transmitters have adjustable filament voltage to assure that that expensive power tube is operating at the proper point.
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Here are a handful from last evening's aurora, some from the Lake Huron shore, a couple from near my home. Through excitement or sheer stupidity, my camera with the better red sensitivity was out of focus for almost the entire night. So many lost shots... Luckily I had a second camera and my iPhone. The last image is from my iphone, the others from an old Canon 6d and a 14mm ultra-wide angle lens.
I'll drown my sorrows with some of Tolkien's "Unfinished Tales" and great music played on my main Schiit stack, a perfect way to spend a dreary rainy day.
The perfect examples would be vintage Dynaco MKIII's and Stereo 70's.Not to be pedantic, but being pedantic: it'd be more correct to say "the silent killer of vintage tube gear is filament voltage."
Modern gear is much more apt to be designed for current AC line voltages. We take high line into account (5.7V at 110 to 6.5V at 125 typical target), or in some cases have regulated DC heaters (Lyr 2, Mjolnir 2, Stjarna). I'm sure many other modern manufacturers do the same.
But yeah, for vintage gear, maybe an AC line regulator/autoformer with switcher thing.
Thanks. Yeah and it's totally fine if some people enjoy listening to that dialect.Great story, and very interesting comment about how they kind of created their own dialect of recorded music. Still thinking about that.