My search for stereo set up ends : Getting a DIY tube amp :)

QUAD 33-303 Pre & Power Amplifier
Update on Speakers.

I talked to Sean Casey of Zu audio. Looking at my requirements he suggested me to go with Omen Def rather than SuperFly. The reason being the bigger size of my room and my requirement of more bass. The new Omen Def's called Mk-I-B have the same specs of SouperFly with 101db/w/m efficiency. They are not yet there in their web site.

I am also talking with them on getting a used pair of Def MkII. Have to see the price and logistics of getting them in Bangalore.

Def MkII are real monsters. They are made of two 10" Full range drivers + 1 super tweeter and four 10" subwoofers with built in amp for the subwoofers :). They can go as low as 16Hz to 25KHz. The efficiency is 101db/w/m and works well with tube SET amps.

Will keep you guys posted.

-John.
 
are you talking to people in delhi or US? What is the price for superfly and Omen Def? Have you heard any of these?
 
Yeah I trust my boss :).

I have heard Omen Bookshelves. They were awesome with SET amps. Also my colleague here is getting his SuperFly in another month or two. So I will get to hear them soon.

I am talking to the India dealers of Zu for getting the speakers. I am also looking at getting them directly from US through FedEx. However both the options are working out to be same cost wise.

The only issue is that the latest Omen Defs are not yet available with the India dealer. And there is an introductory offer if I buy them directly from US. The offer is a discount of around $750. But then I have to take care of the shipping and customs to bring it to Bangalore.

The price of SuperFly and Omen Def are same in India. 2.9L/pair
 
That's a lot of money...Almost 4 lakh expenditure + 1 year waiting.
Be sure you want to go down this road or look at more practical solutions.

I would personally take an omen bookshelf and a SET amp based on whatever research I've done (I'm assuming your boss also came to the same realization which is why he went with the omen bookshelves)

The omen def (Which even though he says is new, has actually been around on the foreign market for several months now) and their markup on the 10" drivers is stupendously high, the markup for 2 is even more, that's one.

Two there are people on other forums I read before who complained about Omen def woofer breakup from crosswaves caused due to a lack of a low pass filter and no compensation for baffle step (One of the reasons why dual woofer fullrangers without a crossover died back in the 1950's). In a way even though you get more sound from two woofers, the quality of sound suffers.

So even though zu has higher end models with more sensitivity (usually also means much shorter voice coils) their more sensible, practical, and STABLE model, is actually the omen bookshelf speaker (granted the essence woofer might be a little better but the tweeter needs to be tamed and the price difference between the omen bookshelf and essence bookshelf does not justify the minor increase in quality. Not to mention the essence range has certain issues with the tweeter going too far while.

You would be dramatically saving a lot of money to invest in better quality DAC's and players with the omen bookshelf option aswell because end of the day

Player/Source>DAC>Amp>Speaker

Not to mention you can also buy an omen bookshelf speaker today itself and a set amp 2a3 amp from Viren and be up and running within less than a month or two till you get your boss's amp in 2013.

Eitherways that's just my suggestion, no hard and fast rule :)
 
Last edited:
corElement said:
That's a lot of money...Almost 4 lakh expenditure + 1 year waiting.
Be sure you want to go down this road or look at more practical solutions.

I would personally take an omen bookshelf and a SET amp based on whatever research I've done (I'm assuming your boss also came to the same realization which is why he went with the omen bookshelves)

The omen def (Which even though he says is new, has actually been around on the foreign market for several months now) and their markup on the 10" drivers is stupendously high, the markup for 2 is even more, that's one.

Two there are people on other forums I read before who complained about Omen def woofer breakup from crosswaves caused due to a lack of a low pass filter and no compensation for baffle step (One of the reasons why dual woofer fullrangers without a crossover died back in the 1950's). In a way even though you get more sound from two woofers, the quality of sound suffers.

So even though zu has higher end models with more sensitivity (usually also means much shorter voice coils) their more sensible, practical, and STABLE model, is actually the omen bookshelf speaker (granted the essence woofer might be a little better but the tweeter needs to be tamed and the price difference between the omen bookshelf and essence bookshelf does not justify the minor increase in quality. Not to mention the essence range has certain issues with the tweeter going too far while.

You would be dramatically saving a lot of money to invest in better quality DAC's and players with the omen bookshelf option aswell because end of the day

Player/Source>DAC>Amp>Speaker

Not to mention you can also buy an omen bookshelf speaker today itself and a set amp 2a3 amp from Viren and be up and running within less than a month or two till you get your boss's amp in 2013.

Eitherways that's just my suggestion, no hard and fast rule :)
Click to expand...

Hey Core.

My boss has Omen bookshelves at his office. Its a very small setup that he has. He don't or can't play it any loud as its sitting in his office. At home he has the bigger Definition MK4. That is another monster. He built two tube mono blocks for driving them.

Omen BS doesn't go too low and you will definitely need a Sub to complement them. And bass is one of my highest priority. I don't want to keep a sub for my stereo setup.

I know I am looking at insanely high cost. Started with 1.5L and now I am standing at around 4L. But to be very frank, none of the setup with in 1.5-2L excited me. That the reason I wanted to go this route.

Lets see how it turns out :).

John.
 
I think my source is going to be Oppo-95 for now as Oppo-95 outperforms Nuforce Extreme Edition on 2 channel performance. Also Oppo-95 has a better chassis and power supply.
 
anm said:
share some juicy details of the comparison of two amps.
Click to expand...

Hi Anm,

Don't really remember much nor whether I had the el84 push pull or SET amp then. I only remember the amp had more power perhaps was wired in triode mode. Sounded more powerful and consequently bass was tighter but the sound was a bit hard too. I guess it would pair better with conventional speakers.

Regards


www.vinylnvalves.blogspot.in
 
stevieboy said:
Hi Anm,

Don't really remember much nor whether I had the el84 push pull or SET amp then. I only remember the amp had more power perhaps was wired in triode mode. Sounded more powerful and consequently bass was tighter but the sound was a bit hard too. I guess it would pair better with conventional speakers.

Regards


Vinyl 'n' Valves
Click to expand...

I would assume Shridhar's amp would have been SET, wired in triode mode. Because he told me that he never tried push pull yet. I think his amps go very well with Zu speakers.
 
Hi

I am the 'in famous boss' :-) John keeps refering to. The amp we took to Steve's house was a triode connected EL-34 SET. At that time, it was being driven by 717A - a mushroom shaped pentode. The amp has gone to quite a few changes in the power supply and now uses a 6E5P [an octal variant of 76] as the driver. The gain is ok because I also built a pentode linestage based on 6AK5, similar in style to Yamamoto CA-03L for my friend.

For John, I decided to go with 6CB5A, an idea I got from Thomas Mayer, who is an awesome builder. He has a blog that makes for awesome reading. The link is -- VinylSavor

The driver is a German post pentode C3m, again I got the idea to use this from Yamamoto San, who uses it in his 300B amp, which has awesome photo shots and reviews over at six moons website. The driver is pentode configured and uses IXYS 10M45S in conjunction with low noise renesas zeners to give a rock solid 100V at the screen of C3m. The key to pentode drivers is all in the screen regulation. C3m is an unsual beast, in that it has a 20V filament voltage. Since I am getting a customer made power transformer for John's amp, I can get away, 'cause I will spec all the necessary secondary voltages.

The power supply for his amp will be a choke input supply, and the input choke is a 15H/200mA Hashimoto choke built for choke input supply. I have used these chokes in my other preamps and amps, they are built like a tank, and have the necessary shielding etc. Only issue is they are not cheap :(.

6CB5A is an indirectly heated triode, so one can get away with AC.

The output transformers are Magnequest MQ FSO-30. These are heavy duty beasts, and I built a 300B amp for my boss using these transformers, and they sound good!!

The coupling cap is Duelund Alexzendar PIO's. I am currently using them in my office amp which is a 45 SET, nice smooth sound.

This is an integrated amp, 'cause with a pentode driver, you can getaway with a 2 stage amp without the need for a linestage if your inputs are CD players, or phono preamps. The volume control and selector comes from gold point a bay area based setup. I use Gold point on all my builds.

One thing is for sure, this is going to be a heavy beast :-)

My own setup is all DHT, my preamp is a parafeed EML 30 linestage, and my amps are low powered 845 monoblocks [8W]. The driver is a 46 DHT connected usign Slagle's IT. The o/p transformers are MQ 5K transformers. The input stepup is a Hashimoto 10K. The philosophy behind is following Sakuma San's approach of a all DHT [Directly Heated Triode] system.

The link to Sakuma San is Direct Heating makes it for an interesting reading, and there is a youtube video interview in japanese, and int hat interview he plays some of his amps, damn! they sound good even on you tube..

My preamp/amp pictures with the circuits are published at jacmusic website, if you click into customer projects and look for 'sridhar.ganti'.

The only caveat, I can deliver this to John early next year, as I have couple of friend's orders in queue, and I myself want to build a 801A driving a 45 monoblock using Hashimoto 5K output transformer I have on hand, plus it is a full time job managing John :)


sridhar
 
Delivering it next year. A nice way to keep the employee in the company ;)

Welcome to the forum sridhar. Nice to have you here. I bet your DHT office amp sounds seductive! nothing like a low powered SET I've found so far...

Regards
 
stevieboy said:
Delivering it next year. A nice way to keep the employee in the company ;)

Welcome to the forum sridhar. Nice to have you here. I bet your DHT office amp sounds seductive! nothing like a low powered SET I've found so far...

Regards
Click to expand...

lol - a lovely retention tool
 
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