Amps

[Mortsnets]

How about BBFYB Amplifiers?

I have a very affordable Musical Paradise MP-301 Single Ended 6V6 integrated that I like. Also a Don Allen EL84 SE Cakepan power amp I use with a Schiit passive pre. On the solid state side I have a bargain priced NSMT modified Lepai amp that is not too bad.

Anyone else? Any Single Ended Triode amps under $1k?

Craig

[Guest]

Maybe I should know to what "BBFYB" cashes out, but I don't.

[JackD201]

I'm guessing its Big Bang For Your Buck. Sub 1k? That's a tough one. It's already hard to DIY with less than 1k if one doesn't have donor parts. Transformers really run up the bill quickly.

Thanks Jack. Hat-tip for that!

[Mortsnets]

Yes, sorry tima for the confusion, I tried to save typing by turning the forum theme "getting the best bang for your buck" into to an acronym.

Thanks Jack for the feedback, I finally have some SET compatible speakers but my curiosity is tempered by the entry fee.

Craig

[mep]

Jack nailed it-unless you already have some good SE OPTs laying around the house for your project, it's hard to pull this off for $1K or less. Good OPTs are expensive, good SE OPTs are more expensive. Having said that, if you use SE OPTs from Hammond, you could possibly pull this off. The Hammond 1628SEA is a good choice for a lot of different output tubes and they can be had for less than $150.00 each.

[Guest]

Yes, sorry tima for the confusion, I tried to save typing by turning the forum theme "getting the best bang for your buck" into to an acronym.

Thanks Jack for the feedback, I finally have some SET compatible speakers but my curiosity is tempered by the entry fee.

Craig

Sure. I use acronyms too, but that one escaped me. I keep encouraging myself to write for the reader.

Along with SETs, consider OTL (Output Transformer-Less) amplifiers. I believe Atma-Sphere offers their M-60 monoblocks in kit form. Those offer (very, imo) high sonic value for the buck.

[mep]

Sure. I use acronyms too, but that one escaped me. I keep encouraging myself to write for the reader.

Along with SETs, consider OTL (Output Transformer-Less) amplifiers. I believe Atma-Sphere offers their M-60 monoblocks in kit form. Those offer (very, imo) high sonic value for the buck.

Atma-Sphere quit offering kit amps long ago. Too many problems and too many showed up on the used market with issues.

[mep]

So where does your link say they are available as kits?

Here's a tip that may help:

Go to the M60 Web page. Within your browser, press CTRL-F. That should bring up a search field into which can be typed the word "KIT".

[mep]

I stand corrected.

[JackD201]

Jack nailed it-unless you already have some good SE OPTs laying around the house for your project, it's hard to pull this off for $1K or less. Good OPTs are expensive, good SE OPTs are more expensive. Having said that, if you use SE OPTs from Hammond, you could possibly pull this off. The Hammond 1628SEA is a good choice for a lot of different output tubes and they can be had for less than $150.00 each.

Then when you move up to the really good output tubes......

[mep]

Then when you move up to the really good output tubes......

Exactly...

[Steve Lefkowicz]

Certainly not under your $1K limit, but the ampsandsound Mogwai is single ended using el34, kt88 or other octal power tubes at $1850. it's both a 4 watt speaker amp and a killer headphone amp. The old Antique Sound Labs MG-SI15DT-S was only about $700 when I got mine, also using KT88. They don't import them to north America any more, but they are still available (though for about $1500) in Asia.

My recommendation for someone looking for low power high quality under $1000 amp would be to look at a gain-clone or other chip amp using that series of chips. I've used the ampsandsound chip amp ($600 for a stereo amp) and it was way better than you would expect for that price. Used an LM1875 chip. I'll be getting a mono set of these amps to test out in the near future.

The Almarro A205A from Japan is a great sounding single ended EL84 amp, and is around $1000, but is really hard to get. They just don't make very many of them.

[JackD201]

1.5 to 2k for a finished competent tube amp sounds about right. 1k as a kit, possible but I'd think quite rare.

[Alrainbow]

A question that I have
all of us may agree that some amps play sound while others music , but what amps are fast and still do.
In speakers for me a ribbon has this quality of music but can be slow while amd ES is very fast but seems thin.
In headphones and for me weight is a line to walk. Too far into speed yields less music and more sound.
My irs st this point seem very musical and have weight
what can I do to speed them up a bit ? I am thinking that some amps are faster is this true ?
What I have now are Aragon's
they are transparent that I can tell small changes a good sign but what I don't get is what I call the jumping factor
given they are large speakers so the image is large what I feel they lack is this. If music comes on fast from low or slow they don't snap as some others do.
Any thoughts in this. Should I do this in another post ?
Thanks in advance

[Beaur]

Three places that come to mind;

Bottlehead
Decware
Music Reference

[Guest]

...
My irs st this point seem very musical and have weight
what can I do to speed them up a bit ? I am thinking that some amps are faster is this true ?
...

The "fastest" amp I've had in my system is David Berning's Quadrature Z. These mono-blocks reproduce music in a way that is incredibly dynamic, vivacious, and so immediately transparent I could tell Dusty used the Ipana, not the Colgate.

[Hawk]

The David Berning Quadrature Z's are really nice. Are they not a transformer-less OTL Design? For a design that has been around a while, they sound excellent and they retain their value very well. Definitely, not inexpensive. Big Bang for more then a few bucks. I really like the Lamm 1.2 reference you own. I have less powerful tube sibling to it. The Lamm ML1.1.

[Alrainbow]

ok thanks .