Clementine confusion
Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 7:34 pm
Hi, I'm new here. I joined because I'm thinking about attempting to build a Clementine. I have a fair bit of electronics hobby experience but it's all low voltage stuff, mainly digital ICs. The only experience I have with tubes is a factory-made Fat Man iTube 252 that I owned when I lived in Europe. I enjoyed its sound and I miss it somewhat, so I thought I'd have a go at building something.
The Clementine seems like a good middle-ground between doing it all from scratch with just a schematic and getting a full kit of parts. I don't have the know-how to do any experimentation or modding so I'm hoping this will be a case of 'build it right and it will just work'. I'm thinking about trying the 6L6 version.
Although I have read every post that seems relevant, I still have a few questions (some of which may appear dumb but hey, I want to do this right):
1. What is a 'chubby' clementine? I don't see it mentioned in the Clementine Manual PDF.
2. Does it have to use plain 6L6s or can I use 6L6GCs or similar with no modifications?
3. I've been looking at the tubes on tubedepot.com and I see a wide variation in price. Is there a huge sonic benefit in paying more than $14 for a Sovtek or is this truly a case of 'you get what you pay for'?
4. The schematic does not include a volume control but I see some builds have one. I would like to do this too. I expect I can figure out where to connect it (voltage divider right at the input?) but I was wondering if there are any 'gotchas' or recommendations I should be aware of. I expect it would be trivial to also add an input selector switch. Apart from needing shielded cable, are there any caveats here?
5. Why does it use screw terminals instead of just soldering the wires directly to the board?
That's about it for now. Thanks in advance for any advice.
John
The Clementine seems like a good middle-ground between doing it all from scratch with just a schematic and getting a full kit of parts. I don't have the know-how to do any experimentation or modding so I'm hoping this will be a case of 'build it right and it will just work'. I'm thinking about trying the 6L6 version.
Although I have read every post that seems relevant, I still have a few questions (some of which may appear dumb but hey, I want to do this right):
1. What is a 'chubby' clementine? I don't see it mentioned in the Clementine Manual PDF.
2. Does it have to use plain 6L6s or can I use 6L6GCs or similar with no modifications?
3. I've been looking at the tubes on tubedepot.com and I see a wide variation in price. Is there a huge sonic benefit in paying more than $14 for a Sovtek or is this truly a case of 'you get what you pay for'?
4. The schematic does not include a volume control but I see some builds have one. I would like to do this too. I expect I can figure out where to connect it (voltage divider right at the input?) but I was wondering if there are any 'gotchas' or recommendations I should be aware of. I expect it would be trivial to also add an input selector switch. Apart from needing shielded cable, are there any caveats here?
5. Why does it use screw terminals instead of just soldering the wires directly to the board?
That's about it for now. Thanks in advance for any advice.
John