"SuperSize me" - custom DIY ST35 amp

[tubes4hifi]

hello fellow DIY's, I thought you might enjoy these photos of this custom DIY ST35 amp - it is 12" wide by 20" deep built on custom chassis . . .

http://www.tubes4hifi.com/barry.htm

[tubes4hifi]

you can link to my website to see all the photos, but since the main photo didn't show in that last post I'll try again here . . .

[DortoH]

Very nice work! What rectifier tube is that?

[Shannon Parks]

Roy,

Throw some 6L6GA's in there and even the SET guys could appreciate it. And that's saying a lot.

Shannon

[tubes4hifi]

that's a Sovtek 5U4 rectifier tube, powered by a Hammond 272HX and feeding thru a 156R choke underneath the top.
If the amp was for me instead of a customer, I'd have used coke bottle 6L6s, but I must say, that rectifier tube is really cool looking!
Also the front panel LED is a blue one, the blues are pricey but another cool touch!

[barry]

The reason that I didn't write sooner to say how I found the amp is because I couldn't stop listening to it! I'm stunned by the quality of sound this little thing produces! now, I'm not a believer in burning in these things with a week of white noise so i set it up and just let it rip. but it did indeed start to sound dramatically different after a few hours, from thin and clinical to full and warm; a very big change, i must say-even without using 6L6's.

Hats off first to Shannon-this is a PCB board? It must be point-to-point of course; everybody knows that no one's ever made a truly successful world-class single board circuit, right? I honestly don't hear a big difference in quality between this and some of th class A big boys-and i've heard them and owned them.
And Roy-time to demo this with those guys at The Absolute Sound; make sure you take bets first; you'll clean up, I assure you. They'll start asking where Vacuum Tube Audio's been all this time and welcome back.
I'm glad-and quite frankly relived that my design layout worked so well-sorry roy, but you did think I was nuts when I told you I wanted the trannys to run front to back-and don't even start in on the why-does-the-led-have-to-be-blue, goddamnit routine? I'll send photos when i fabricate the tranny cover-in aluminum, of course.

the wife and i tried every recording we could think of to test it's limits; from well-engineered single instrument pieces to old low-fi crap. all of it was opened up to show us a bigger, faster soundstage; indeed, the better recordings displayed a much wider soundstage than we ever knew was in the music; the bass was fuller and tighter than the old stock ST-70-and even the Audio Research classic 60 version-and lost that slightly in-the-background sound that we were used to, adding a full octave at the bottom and half again at the top. full orchestral pieces that usual turn to mush no longer gave me the feeling that they needed more mikes when they set up the recording. bass drum crescendos became tightly controlled and forceful solo pieces were clarified and voices, well, sang.

For those that prefer to just simply enjoy the music, i strongly recommend that everybody swap over to tube rectification immediately; it gives this amp a warm, gooey musical sound that doesn't fatigue your ears; please note that i could have written this almost 48 hours earlier, but my wife and i just didn't want to stop-we got that much pleasure out of it. you just want to sit around and listen to the music instead of critiquing the equipment.
are you listening, Absolute Sound? are you sure this isn't class A?
So to recap: tube rectifier: big upgrade. do it now.
Shannon-revision E should and will have tube rectification without modification! no, don't argue with me, young man.
-barry

Associated equipment, FYI:
-Teres turntable
-Benz Glider cart
-Electrocompaniet EC1 preamp
-Quad 57 electrostatic speakers (double stacked, giving a 6 foot tall line source)