Friday Night Listening Session

sweet & juicy SE amp for 1626 Darlings and the 6L6 family

Friday Night Listening Session

Postby Shannon Parks » Fri Aug 05, 2011 6:21 pm

Ah yes - the trusty 8X12X3 aluminum Hammond box strikes again. Took advantage of the 12.6VDC filament voltage to make an easy power LED by the toggle switch. Totally silent - zero hum. Beautiful sound. Not a rocker at 3/4W but very impressive, and very darling. I get it.

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Postby TomMcNally » Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:21 pm

Nice amp Shannon!

I made one too ...

Sounding sweet!

More pix tomorrow.

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Postby EWBrown » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:19 pm

(love) [:) (love) [:) (love) [:) (love)

Really like the darkened room "tubeglow" photo!

/ed B
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Postby Ty_Bower » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:08 am

TomMcNally wrote:I made one too ...


How do you build so fast, Tom? I don't even have parts yet...

May we see the underside?
"It's a different experience; the noise occlusion, crisp, clear sound, and defined powerful bass. Strong bass does not corrupt the higher frequencies, giving a very different overall feel of the sound, one that is, in my opinion, quite unique."
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Postby TomMcNally » Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:36 am

Practice Ty !
My Mouser stuff came in yesterday, I had chassis and transformers on hand.
Just drilled and punched and soldered and enjoyed the music!

More pics at http://tmamps.com

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Postby EWBrown » Sat Aug 06, 2011 8:45 pm

Looks great! THe first of three Darlings this week, eh? Six channels, no waiting...

You may want to re-flow the solder on the "top" end of the resistor right next to C2, it looks just a tad "nekkid" as we say down here ;) (lol)

I know, I've been told that I'm compulsively "anal" about soldering, (I learned soldering, long ago, from a really compulsive, NASA-rated perfectionist) even if the electrical connection is perfectly good on a plated thru hole, if it isn't properly "filleted" on both sides of the board, it just makes me feel like I forgot something...

I even find it hard to leave any unoccupied plated thru holes or "via" unsoldered, which really makes it a PIA for me to do any future mods, additions, or updates on the finished board :'( ;) (lol)

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Postby Geek » Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:03 am

Tom needs a hobby....

.... oh, wait!

(lol)

Cheers!
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Postby kku » Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:23 pm

How does 1626 sound(especially in terms of details and resolution) compared to other popular tubes(6L6GC/807, EL84/34) sound in SET? Not so special?
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Postby TomMcNally » Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:31 pm

kku - the 1626 has been likened to a baby 300B by others.
Not much power, but a nice sound.
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Postby Geek » Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:04 pm

The physical appearance... I was wondering if it was an octal 45 (???)

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Postby Shannon Parks » Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:44 pm

Geek wrote:The physical appearance... I was wondering if it was an octal 45 (???)


Here's a 1626, 45 and 300B:

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Postby Geek » Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:55 pm

Thanks Shannon (y)

So.... what kind of power are we talking about in Clemintine... 1/2W a channel?

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Postby Shannon Parks » Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:36 pm

I test max output to 5% distortion, and the Clementine 1626 puts out 3/4W exactly. The 6L6 build does at least 4W at 5%.

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Postby EWBrown » Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:49 am

The 1626 definitely is not a "downsized" octal 45, it has about half the power generating capability, and the operating characteristics are significantly different, as were the intended RF uses for these tubes.

If you want to try a cheap "45" alternative, the octal 6DN7 or duodecar compactron 6FJ7 power triode comes very close, at least in sound quality, and the VA triode is close to being half of a 6SN7.

These tubes are significantly different from 6EM7, so it is not a direct drop-inreplacement, and the power triode is happiest with a B+ around 315 to 325VDC, a 620 ohm, 2W RK (bypassed) and an 6K to 8K OPT primary (which is about 3X the RP). 5K will work, but there will be a tad more THD.

With these conditions, the cathode/plate curent will be about 27 mA, and the RK will see about 16-17 VDC across it, so it needs about a half to a third of the 6EM7's grid drive signal voltage.

The VA triode has a mu of 22.5, the power triode, a mu of 15.4.

These 6DN7s are the same tubes that Doc Bottlehead uses in his "Single Ended eXperimenter's" (S.E.X.) amp, and I can vouch, they sound very good, indeed.

There are no Russian or European equivalents, and no alternate filament voltage versions. These were used for TV vertical deflection, and were made by the millions, near the end of the all-tube TV era.

Interestingly, there is little or no difference between the various manufacturer's pproduction, so tube-rolling will not yield much of any real interest. These tubes come in both the standard octal base, and the newer "coin" octal base versions. These, like the 6EM7, have the commonly used octal 8BD pinout.

If you want to model it with TUbe-CAD< treat the VA as 6SN7, and the PA as 6BL7, that will get you "in the ball park", close, enough is good enough, just like with horse shoes and hand grenades ;) (lol)

Nice ST envelope tube line-up (love) . Add in a 2A3 or 6B4G, then they would be displayed in four ascending sizes :))

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Postby Geek » Mon Aug 08, 2011 4:57 pm

Thanks guys!

I didn't look up the specs.... I judged the "book by it's cover" :$

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