[Covenant]

Has anyone seen/tried these out:

Weber Copper Cap Rectifiers

An amp-builder friend of mine pointed them out to me after my recent experience with a faulty Sophia Princess rectifier.

I'm really of two minds about them. On the one hand, since the rectifier tube isn't in the signal path, it makes sense to use a solid state component here to achieve maximum power supply linearity, as well as the reduced power consumption.

On the other hand, I like my big glowy rectifier tube dammit

 

[EtherealApril]

So it turned out to be the Sophia that was faulty, not a problem with your WA6-SE? I'm glad it wasn't your amp misbehaving but it's not something I'd expect out of such an expensive, new tube.

The tube replacements look interesting but seem to me to be designed for improved reliability and reduced power consumption, rather than improved audio performance: an engineering solution rather than something to attract audiophiles. I'd be interested to see how they compare.

 

[Covenant]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EtherealApril /img/forum/go_quote.gif So it turned out to be the Sophia that was faulty, not a problem with your WA6-SE? I'm glad it wasn't your amp misbehaving but it's not something I'd expect out of such an expensive, new tube.

That's what we think, its on its way back to Sophia Electric at Jack's instruction, anyway. The Woo certainly isnt faulty, as the stock rectifier's working fine and the thing still sounds incredible.

Quote:

The tube replacements look interesting but seem to me to be designed for improved reliability and reduced power consumption, rather than improved audio performance: an engineering solution rather than something to attract audiophiles. I'd be interested to see how they compare.

I sent the link to Jack as well to see what he thought of it, and according to him it's NOT suitable for the WA6SE. It's still interesting though, and I wonder if there are other amps out there it would suit.

 

[moonboy403]

Who cares about sound quality when your rectifier is glowing so beautifully.

 

[Uncle Erik]

There have been replacements available for some time and you can always rework an amp to use diodes and caps to replace a tube rectifier.

However, I think that a tube rectifier adds a certain amount of personality to the sound you don't get with solid state. I'll happily put up with the quirks and occasional failures just to get the most out of the sound.