Cute Little Budgie SE

a 3W single ended EL84 amp for home, work & school

Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby TomMcNally » Sat May 17, 2014 1:31 pm

My Edcor transformers arrived in about 6 weeks, so I put the Budgie SE together last night. This amp sounds great, and looks great too.
I'm using tubes I found in a coffee can, and they are perfect. Plenty of volume withe the CD player connected directly, no preamp.
This is a perfect amp for someone who doesn't want to mess with metalwork, just need to drill 6 small holes. Shannon's top plate
makes it look like a commercial product with no work. (y)

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Geek » Sun May 18, 2014 12:52 am

Another lovely Jersey girl, Tom! :))
-= Gregg =-
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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Tue May 20, 2014 9:24 am

I really love that amp! Ran out of those top plates, btw. Working on a new, larger one for a (much) less cramped build. Probably switching to Hammond trannies, too. Changes aren't permanent, but change is. (lol)

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Ty_Bower » Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:35 pm

Tell me more about the Hammond OTX. What's the motivation? Faster delivery time? Multi-tapped secondaries? I've always been a big fan of the Edcor stuff.
"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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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Fri Jun 13, 2014 5:53 am

Ty_Bower wrote:Tell me more about the Hammond OTX. What's the motivation? Faster delivery time? Multi-tapped secondaries? I've always been a big fan of the Edcor stuff.


Still kind of brainstorming the whole issue, Ty. Misc thoughts:

- I'm not a fan of the Edcor blue paint, and I don't want to repaint either. I know Edcor has black bells now - anyway to order them installed and not a la carte?

- A nice power transformer sub is the Hammond 269JX. Not much more than the Edcor and not blue. Runs cool. 115/125VAC primary options.

- Hammond outputs could be the 125CSE or 125DSE. But these are a lot more $$$ than the open frame 10W Edcors (I believe Tom has used a lot of these?).

- Not sure how much of a "Henry deduction" these open frame units will be compared to the current OPTs. All are flawed, really, and cause heavy distortion under 100Hz. Fortunately this primarily 2nd harmonic mess "fills out" the bass content and actually sounds bassier. Interesting phenomenon. Not preferable from a hifi standpoint, but from a weight and economics standpoint, it's brilliant.

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby TomMcNally » Fri Jun 13, 2014 9:48 am

My thoughts -

The Hammond 125CSE and it's ilk are God awful ugly. I always hide them inside the box.
They don't sound bad, but dollar for dollar the Edcor are better.

I don't mind Edcor Blue, and yes, painting is way too much hassle.

I wish someone would make the beautiful Nickel plated bells like Uncle Ned used to sell.

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:36 am

Shannon Parks wrote:
Ty_Bower wrote:Tell me more about the Hammond OTX. What's the motivation? Faster delivery time? Multi-tapped secondaries? I've always been a big fan of the Edcor stuff.


Still kind of brainstorming the whole issue, Ty. Misc thoughts:

- I'm not a fan of the Edcor blue paint, and I don't want to repaint either. I know Edcor has black bells now - anyway to order them installed and not a la carte?

- A nice power transformer sub is the Hammond 269JX. Not much more than the Edcor and not blue. Runs cool. 115/125VAC primary options.

- Hammond outputs could be the 125CSE or 125DSE. But these are a lot more $$$ than the open frame 10W Edcors (I believe Tom has used a lot of these?).

- Not sure how much of a "Henry deduction" these open frame units will be compared to the current OPTs. All are flawed, really, and cause heavy distortion under 100Hz. Fortunately this primarily 2nd harmonic mess "fills out" the bass content and actually sounds bassier. Interesting phenomenon. Not preferable from a hifi standpoint, but from a weight and economics standpoint, it's brilliant.


So I'm looking hard at the Edcor XSE10-8-5K as the new transformer for my next revision Budgie SE. They'd be meant for inside chassis mounting. I'm redoing the chassis top plate and will have a couple of mounting screws for these OPTs. Should look real clean. The chassis would be the Hammond 1550JBK. The almost extra inch dim (over the 6x10x2 chassis) and lack of folded lip makes it much roomier and an easy build. Almost 0.5" deeper, too.

This pic is the bottom view of the top plate. Those outlines will actually be there to facilitate the build. Hammond 269JX is still a drop in sub for PT. I may stockpile some XSE10-8-5Ks and sell a partial kit with the two OPTs, the top plate and amp PCB. Everything else could be purchased without Edcor leadtimes.

Shannon
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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Ty_Bower » Mon Aug 04, 2014 5:03 pm

Shannon Parks wrote:So I'm looking hard at the Edcor XSE10-8-5K as the new transformer for my next revision Budgie SE.


If you are willing to go open frame, have you considered the GXSE5-8-5.5K? It's very nearly the same impedance ratio, but steps you up from the X line to the GX. They claim a deeper bottom end, nearly six notes lower, and it only costs a few pennies more. You sacrifice a little power handling, but can a single ended EL84 really produce 10 watts? I'm assuming (hoping?) they used more turns of smaller gauge wire to buy more inductance within the same frame size, and adjusted the secondary to maintain a useful ratio.

I've actually got a set of these transformers around, and a Budgie SE that never got built. Maybe I should give it a try...
"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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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:36 am

Ty_Bower wrote:
Shannon Parks wrote:So I'm looking hard at the Edcor XSE10-8-5K as the new transformer for my next revision Budgie SE.


If you are willing to go open frame, have you considered the GXSE5-8-5.5K? It's very nearly the same impedance ratio, but steps you up from the X line to the GX. They claim a deeper bottom end, nearly six notes lower, and it only costs a few pennies more. You sacrifice a little power handling, but can a single ended EL84 really produce 10 watts? I'm assuming (hoping?) they used more turns of smaller gauge wire to buy more inductance within the same frame size, and adjusted the secondary to maintain a useful ratio.

I've actually got a set of these transformers around, and a Budgie SE that never got built. Maybe I should give it a try...


How did I miss this, Ty? I guess I assumed that all the GXSEs had covers and didn't even look. Edcor just shipped my XSE10-8-5K trannies. Could I ask you to ship one of yours to me for comparison testing? I can reimburse the shipping.

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Ty_Bower » Tue Aug 05, 2014 4:48 pm

Just give me a day or two to pull them out, and I'll get them sent off. Can you PM your address to me, just so I make sure I have something current?

I'm quite curious myself to see how they might compare to the XSE.
"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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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Tue Aug 05, 2014 4:58 pm

PM sent, Ty. This will be perfect. I'll do a simple inductance test on the primaries with my Wavetek Meterman. We can compare those numbers to EWBrown's old Edcor inductance post. And then I'll do bandwidth and saturation tests in circuit.

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby Shannon Parks » Tue Aug 12, 2014 10:15 am

Thanks, Ty! The transformers arrived. I may look at the inductance today with my Wavetek Meterman. Parts have been ordered from Mouser for the main Budgie PCB. The new - huge - top plate arrived yesterday. I really like all the bottom layout guides.

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Re: Cute Little Budgie SE

Postby EWBrown » Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:30 am

Here's mine, I built it about a year ago. I didn't need the headphone output, so I deleted the padding resistors and headphone jack,
and I replaced it with a DIALCO red LED pilot light, and an un-illuminated power switch that I had in my junque box.
The volume knob is vintage Heathkit . Everything else is "stock" .

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I posted this last year, just wanted to update it.

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