Author Topic: Valve amps from 1950-60  (Read 9672 times)

  • Offline bear

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Valve amps from 1950-60
on: May 07, 2018, 09:16:33 AM
Have one of these I restord with modern rectfier and new capacitors. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_el6411_el_6411.html and this I am trying to restore https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10214514738242132.1073741828.1230635353&type=1&l=4fceff077d

Any one here on the forum with knowledge about valve amps. ?

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  • Offline Clock'd 0Ne

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #1 on: May 07, 2018, 12:26:50 PM
I know nothing of the workings of them, only that you supposedly get a rich analogue sound from them. I'd love to try one some day.

  • Offline bear

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #2 on: May 07, 2018, 16:45:07 PM
Yeah it is for my, kid he plays on an old Hagström guitar from 65 :) Fixed a tube Marshal(well solid state + tubes in preamp) from 95 a JTM 30, put in a fan and replaced a few more components.

  • Offline Serious

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #3 on: May 08, 2018, 11:06:29 AM
I know nothing of the workings of them, only that you supposedly get a rich analogue sound from them. I'd love to try one some day.

Then I am very suspicious of all the hype surrounding valves, the reason technology moved away from them was they are big, costly and inefficient. The sound might be pleasing but is it more accurate? The argument sounds very much like the £5000 per metre zero oxygen copper cable is better that £5 per metre copper cable. Then in most cases people are pumping a digital signal through valves.

I'm not arguing that you shouldn't use one with a genuine1960s guitar, they were made for each other and give a distinctive sound.

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #4 on: May 08, 2018, 14:30:29 PM
A valve sound is not more accurat but warmer, digital is samples/time but analouge does not omit any and if it cannot handle a sound it does clip but gets distorted.

  • Offline Shaun

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #5 on: May 09, 2018, 15:50:56 PM
I know nothing of the workings of them, only that you supposedly get a rich analogue sound from them. I'd love to try one some day.

Then I am very suspicious of all the hype surrounding valves, the reason technology moved away from them was they are big, costly and inefficient. The sound might be pleasing but is it more accurate? The argument sounds very much like the £5000 per metre zero oxygen copper cable is better that £5 per metre copper cable. Then in most cases people are pumping a digital signal through valves.

I'm not arguing that you shouldn't use one with a genuine1960s guitar, they were made for each other and give a distinctive sound.
I have no experience of vintage tube amps but I do have 2 modern headphone tube amp’s, one on my HTPC  (which is the main one I use for music listening) and a cheaper one of my gaming PC.

I do enjoy the sound tubes give to music, the set I'm using on my HTPC at the moment are new old stock USSR tubes made in the 70/80’s for the nuclear program https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LITTLE-DOT-MK1-MKII-MK-III-HEADPHONE-AMP-ULTIMATE-VALVE-TUBE-UPGRADE-UK-STOCK/252130624590?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Serious nobody pumps a digital signal through a tube amp it would be gibberish :P (or speakers/headphones for that matter) that is what a Dac or sound card does turns a digital signal to analogue.  As for accuracy (outside of the recording studio) for 99% of people who listen to music a more soft sound is often better than 100% accuracy. I have quite a large collection of high bitrate 24 and 32 bit audio and some gets quite fatiguing to listen to after as little as 10 minutes at my normal listening volume. The tubes I'm currently using opens up the soundstage, tightens up the bass (makes it more defined) and tone down sibilance and makes the sound a lot more pleasing on the ear.

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #6 on: May 09, 2018, 18:52:13 PM
Yes Shaun it is a more pleasing sound.   The now run preamps at 9 volt but with a tube ! Some russian tubes are good, like Sovtek.  I am menber of Radiomuseethttp://www.radiomuseet.se/butik/index_ror.html there I can by almoust any old used Tube :)  Philips, RCA, Telefunken etc. all good tubes. Which kind of tube in your amp ?

  • Offline Shaun

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #7 on: May 09, 2018, 21:15:08 PM
 My amps will take EF91,EF92, EF95, Mullard’s, RCA and GE where the ones that stood out as quite a bit better than the stock tubes. The ones I linked above I liked the most, they where the best all-rounders and reasonably price compared to some of the others, I have been using them excursively for over 12 months, I’m now on my second set, the first lasted about 9 months of pretty regular use.   

I’m quite lucky I have a friend who is a record collector, he lent me quite a few set's to try when I got my first tube amp a couple of years ago.
Last Edit: May 09, 2018, 21:17:43 PM by Shaun #187;

  • Offline bear

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #8 on: May 10, 2018, 10:19:44 AM
Ok  Voskhod with a tube type from 1942  :) (used ones between 3-4 Euro at radiomuseet) this german moved to sweden with his stuff https://phonobar.se/

  • Offline Serious

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #9 on: May 12, 2018, 01:19:49 AM
Serious nobody pumps a digital signal through a tube amp it would be gibberish :P (or speakers/headphones for that matter) that is what a Dac or sound card does turns a digital signal to analogue.  As for accuracy (outside of the recording studio) for 99% of people who listen to music a more soft sound is often better than 100% accuracy. I have quite a large collection of high bitrate 24 and 32 bit audio and some gets quite fatiguing to listen to after as little as 10 minutes at my normal listening volume. The tubes I'm currently using opens up the soundstage, tightens up the bass (makes it more defined) and tone down sibilance and makes the sound a lot more pleasing on the ear.

You should know what I meant, the analogue output from a digital device, such as a CD player. Some companies trying to sell very expensive valve amps claim they are much better, what they really mean is there is a lot of profit for them.

If you know what you have and how to set it up then great, a lot don't even bother trying to find out. Standard around here is a cheap system from somewhere like Currys :(

  • Offline bear

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Re: Valve amps from 1950-60
Reply #10 on: May 12, 2018, 11:58:53 AM
Serious nobody pumps a digital signal through a tube amp it would be gibberish :P (or speakers/headphones for that matter) that is what a Dac or sound card does turns a digital signal to analogue.  As for accuracy (outside of the recording studio) for 99% of people who listen to music a more soft sound is often better than 100% accuracy. I have quite a large collection of high bitrate 24 and 32 bit audio and some gets quite fatiguing to listen to after as little as 10 minutes at my normal listening volume. The tubes I'm currently using opens up the soundstage, tightens up the bass (makes it more defined) and tone down sibilance and makes the sound a lot more pleasing on the ear.

You should know what I meant, the analogue output from a digital device, such as a CD player. Some companies trying to sell very expensive valve amps claim they are much better, what they really mean is there is a lot of profit for them.

If you know what you have and how to set it up then great, a lot don't even bother trying to find out. Standard around here is a cheap system from somewhere like Currys :(

Yes there is D/A converters of diffrent quality, you can spend a lot on just a D/A  https://phonobar.se/hifi/da-wandler/  Best sound would be, from an analouge master tape through a battery driven tube amp :) ( no Dac  needed ).

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