Does ebay wording influence your buying decisions?

[ProAc_Fan]

Whenever I see auctions like this one,.. ebay auction I can't get by the grammatical and spelling errors. Is that a bigoted way to look at things? BTW just what the heck is this Telefunken thing anyway? It looks like a suitcase or something. Is it any good?


Mike

 

[Rob]

6BM8

The 6BM8 is a low power pentode output tube, trying to emulate a 6BQ5 but not up to that standard (the 6BQ5 has legendary tone), combined with a small signal triode in the same 9 pin miniature envelope. You can make a cheap record player amp to run off a high output crystal phono cartridge with just one tube per channel. That was probably the roots of the design of this tube IMO. I consider anything vintage that uses 6BM8's kind of cheesy and at the bottom of low end in tube audio gear.

Someone recently (Antique Sound Labs?) designed a commercially produced low cost push pull tube amp monoblock that does everything with a pair of 6BM8's. It puts out around 8 watts. One triode is the voltage amp, the other triode is the phase splitter and the two pentode sections are the output stages. Very clever. Very cheap.

This Telefunken is a single ended design, so is the business end of a pointed stick. That doesn't necessarily mean you want it. It might sound OK but the power will be small and the price is already in the collectible/novelty category, not commensurate with the hardware you are getting IMO.

For additional technical critiques of amplifiers I've never either seen nor heard, ask away.

Rob

 

[ProAc_Fan]

Yeah Rob that's the ASL Wave 8 monoblock. IIRC the MSRP for one of those is $119.99 USD.

Mike

 

[MikE]

Of course

The ad is all you may know about the seller, so you look at three things: the product, the price [bids] and the seller. You check their profile and the ad itself. If something doesn't look right, it may enfluence your decision to bid.

MikE

 

[Fisherdude]

I do pay attention, and am influenced, by the text in the listing.

In this case, based on the Canadian location of the seller, I assume a native speaker of French, and I wouldn't necessarily write it off. Still doing all upper-case with 123 feedbacks is a little weak!

Sometimes the seller comes through with a real "like it or lump it...take it or leave it" attitude. I always figure I'm just asking for trouble with a seller like that, and usually walk.

Here's a great example of the style of the listing affecting the outcome of the auction: I was actively looking for a Hammarlund HQ-180 shortwave receiver, which comes up now and then, but certainly not often. Among old tube "boatanchor" collectors this is an extremely desirable receiver.

Pow...two listed at once!

First one (with a speaker) had a nice, literate listing, complete with story of saving up newspaper route money to buy his dream brand new in 1964, but wasn't using it any more, was just sitting in the basement, and wanted a new loving home for it. Said "great condition, but not perfect". Several sharp pics, no pic of inside. I see small line of rust along bottom edge of front panel.

Second listing is all uppercase, run-on sentences, "THE WORLD'S BEST RADIO YOU'LL NEVER DO BETTER DON'T LET IT GET AWAY" yadayadayada. Small, fuzzy pics, no pics of inside, gray front panel appears brownish blotchy. I send a quick email asking about the apparent discoloration on the panel. I check back the next day and the seller has modified the listing: "I'M GETTING LOTS OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FRONT PANEL. IT'S JUST CIGARETTE SMOKE RESIDUE. IT WILL COME RIGHT OFF. STOP SENDING ME THESE EMAILS WITH THIS QUESTION!!!!!"

Ohmigod! Well, that's a first!

I send a second email, using my other email address <g>, asking for pics of the inside, from both sellers. First seller (the nice one) sends pics right away. Inside of radio looks like it come up from the Titanic. Rust everywhere. Second seller (the asshole) sends pics. Pics show inside to gleam like it's brand new.

To get to the point, the first radio, (the ball of rust), pulls 22 bids and goes for $700+. The second radio, (the one with the flawless interior) pulls 2 bids and goes for $370. To me! The cigarette smoke residue washed right off with my usual (safe) solution of Tide and warm water, and I found the most mint, flawless HQ-180C (with the rare factory option noise blanker) that I have ever seen, for an unbelievable price.

I got lucky primarily because the seller was a jerk, and posted small, fuzzy pictures for what should have been a high-dollar item. I did a little extra homework, and was able to take advantage of the fact that the seller turned off a lot of potential buyers with his arrogant attitude.

Be wary of the jerks, but if the item looks promising, do some digging. You might get lucky!

Clay

 

[grumpy]

Clay

Great story ! goes to show that if ya do your home work the rewards can be awesome !


Mike

I cant stand auctions like that. They give next to nil for info and expect big bucks. Wish I could do that. Hell it would save me a ton of time !

The Tele thing is the most fugly thang ive seen. looks more like an ole tape deck then amp

 

[gonefishin]

cool story clay!


proac...that ad was pretty bad. Although, I couldn't help to think that if he drives ya nuts...my writtin' must do the same to ya. I'll try ta be better

 

[THOR]

No words make no difference unless they say it be broken, but a picture is worth a 1000 words. I will not even bother to look at an auction with no picture. And I won't even think about bidding if it is a bad picture

 

[tubino]

Re: 6BM8

Originally posted by Rob
I consider anything vintage that uses 6BM8's kind of cheesy and at the bottom of low end in tube audio gear.

Aw, now that's not very nice. On a pair of really efficient speakers, a good 6BM8 amp can sound terrific! In fact there's a whole cult following in Japan around 6BM8 amps, with big websites full of schematics and photos of beautifully crafted (and usually tiny) amps.

I've built a couple myself, including the STC (Super Triode Connection) version. That one didn't do it for me, even when I tried it on a friend's big Altec horns, but I did a rebuild on an "Alrad" that came out well.

But I've got a thing for flea-powered amps. I once made a parafeed battery-biased (lead-acid!) single-stage WE 417A amp. Cleanest half a watt you ever heard. : Two years later I'm still waiting to get it back from a guy... The amp I listen to in my office is a totally rebuilt no-name SE midget with 6AQ5 output tubes. See picture below. Too bad you can't see the hammertone paint! Remember, it's about the size of a tall cigar box. I think I squeezed in a filter choke and big teflon coupling caps, maybe put in a 12BH7 for the AX7 and reduced the feedback which compensated for the lower gain... I'm thinking about adding a real subwoofer to the mix, for when I'm working late in the office...

 

[Rob]

Tubino,

I am certainly entitled to my opinion and that is what my statement was. I only pointed a finger at vintage. Back then if someone wanted to make a hi-end amp they had lots of fine power tubes to choose from and they did. The only manufacturers that used a 6BM8 were those making a botom of the line, lowest cost product.

There are camps of enthusiasts nowadays following lots of different ideas. I won't knock anyone that wants to experiment with 6BM8's or anything else in their search for fine tone. Your 417A amp sounds interesting if not loud. I have a few of these N.I.B. and was going to sell them to a friend for preamp service. Did you consider paralleling a few for more power?

I don't know of any loudspeaker efficient enough that I would be satisfied with only 1/2 watt output except headphones. For me 3 watts is pretty much at the minimum of the useable scale with 14-20 being ample. I like to hear and feel slam in my music when it is present.

 

[tubino]

Rob,

Right after I hit the SUBMIT button I realized you said quite clearly "vintage." And I'd have to agree with you, the 6BM8 tube represented the cheeep way to make an amp. So I definitely wasn't out to attack you, just to defend the poor little 6BM8.

And it's true, when you run out of power it can get pretty ugly. On the flip side of the flea-power defense, I have a pair of monster back-loaded horns, probably in the 103-105db range. And even THERE, there's no substitute for POWER! Do I want a watt at my disposal for Chemical Brothers? NO WAY! I like to hook up my deHavilland Aries 845 amps and FEEL the power. (Two floors up, the furniture vibrates audibly! I love it!)

Same thing when we did an amp shootout on a pair of Classic Audio Reproduction T-1's. Plenty efficient, but the deHavs had it over a nice 2A3 amp, and the Atma-Sphere OTLs still worked better for major bass.

So I like the little 6BM8, but there's definitely a place for double-digit tube power.

The 417A amp was just horsing around. For more juice in a spud amp (=single tuber), there are other ways to go though. I think a 437 is a candidate. Also, if I ever get the amp back, I have some Russian tubes that I can plug in for up to 40 ma each. I might get a thousand milliwatts!

Tubino

 

[Rob]

Tubino,

That's OK. Funny thing, after I submitted MY post I though if I should retract my statement about me considering 3 watts as the beginning level of sufficient. That is a bit of a stretch for me to say, even with 100+dB speakers.

Please tell/show us more about your big horns!

I custom scratch built a set of quite large 50Hz bi-radial exponential front horns to my own design a year and a half ago. I like them but want to address an energy storage problem (I consider it a problem while others haven't noticed it) at about 375 Hz. I have been prototyping another large speaker project with similar efficiency in that room and haven't listened to my horns now for ~6 months. These new product speakers will eventually have to go out of there as this room is my home theater and the developmental speakers are too big and I cannot see the screen!

I'll show you pictures of mine if you show me yours!

 

[tubino]

Originally posted by Rob
Please tell/show us more about your big horns! [snip]
I'll show you pictures of mine if you show me yours!

Okay, I'll do it! But I'll start a new thread in SPEAKERS-- this is way off from "ebay wording...". See you there.

Tubino

 

[lylefan]

It seems to me like the individual that wrote the original post at the top of this thread was just throwing in key words to be picked up in a search engine. Then again, maybe I am giving the writer too much credit and maybe he IS an idiot.