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Finished! Kegger-designed SE EL84 monoblocks

Thanks everyone. They turned out okay, methinks. It was fun hearing them on Ron's latest cobbleboxes yesterday. Between the amps and the speakers, there were some fifteen pounds of giant caps, probably...




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Nice looking amps. What first came to mind was grain silos in the midwest. Now I'm not knocking the looks, just sayin thats what came to mind when I saw the first pic.
 
God job, Nate, these are getting the coveted :thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp: because of the innovative "Nateplate" and the attention to detail. They sound terrific, too!

Maybe we can get you some better looking bases, worthy of what's on top. I'm thinking, of a figured Tigerwood or maybe even this Kauri.
 
westend said:
God job, Nate, these are getting the coveted :thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp::thmbsp: because of the innovative "Nateplate" and the attention to detail. They sound terrific, too!

Maybe we can get you some better looking bases, worthy of what's on top. I'm thinking, of a figured Tigerwood or maybe even this Kauri.
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Thanks Lance! That wood looks pretty slick - gorgeous stuff, but I can't believe I just watched a video of a piece of wood... :rolleyes:

I had a conversation with Scott tonight about maybe using a little silver in the signal path, too. That might be interesting.
 
I'm here to say that these sound as good as they look! Very impressive, Nate, all the way around :thmbsp:

RC
 
(very very nice job on the setup) :)
Hey Nate, if yu wanna take a few voltage measurements we can see if anything looks
like it might need and or want a tweak, like plate and cathode v on drivers an outputs.
.
.
I know you haven't run um very long but any preliminary thoughts on the sound of um?
 
Kegger said:
(very very nice job on the setup) :)
Hey Nate, if yu wanna take a few voltage measurements we can see if anything looks
like it might need and or want a tweak, like plate and cathode v on drivers an outputs.
.
.
I know you haven't run um very long but any preliminary thoughts on the sound of um?
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Thanks, man! They ended up looking pretty much how I'd hoped, but better yet, I think they sound real nice too! Based on what I heard at Ron's, they seem pretty well-rounded. We didn't play a lot of bass-heavy music but I got the impression that they do extend a bit lower than the amps I've been building around the cheapie Edcor outputs. Very nice tone overall.

I haven't used the 6AU6 as a driver before, but I had to try a few of them in one amp to find one that was quiet. Good thing I picked up a good handful of them.

We're heading out of town for a week tomorrow morning, so I'll grab some voltage measurements sometime after that.

Oh, and to answer Squidward's earlier question - the rectifier's a 6CA4/EZ81. No 5V winding on these power transformers.
 
All I can say Red, Is you did a very nice job. How does Ween sound on them?
What is a ballpark figure on the wattage on these?
 
jimfet said:
All I can say Red, Is you did a very nice job. How does Ween sound on them?
What is a ballpark figure on the wattage on these?
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You know, they're Ween virgins right now. Gotta rectify that! :D

I'm not sure of the power output. Kegger can probably tell us, though. The EL84s are run single ended, and ultralinear.
 
How do you have the 6AU6 wired? Triode or pentode? There are some neat articles on ways to run 6AU6 as a triode by wiring the grids different ways.
 
Hey Ed, I'm going to PM you with the schematic. If Kegger's cool with it, I'll post it here, too.
 
I'd like to get those voltage readings an see exactly how things are running before
we post that schematic, in case any changes or whatnot, the 6AU6 is wired triode
with g2 strapped to the plate an g3 tied to the cathode for now, later I'd like Nate
to try it with g3 strapped to the plate as well.

Power output should be in the 3-3.5w range, output should be pretty clean an flat.

Anyway Nate yah whenever yu get the time we should look at the voltages/circuit.
(glad it seems to be working well, plenty of different driver tubes to roll in there to)
 
Man, these things run cool! I turned the amps on two hours ago. Haven't been playing music, but right now the power transformers might be ten degrees warmer than room temp.
 
I'd think they would run cool-- those transformers look huge for the size amp this is. I assume the largest silver cans are covered up toroidal power transformers, and the visible EI transformers are for output?

The finished products look excellent, and I'm glad to hear you like the sound too. Good job!
 
jrsh92 said:
I'd think they would run cool-- those transformers look huge for the size amp this is. I assume the largest silver cans are covered up toroidal power transformers, and the visible EI transformers are for output?
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Not quite... In the pictures, the shorter can on the front is the potted output transformer, the blue critter in the back is the power transformer, and the three cans in the middle are jumbo polyprop in oil caps. Underneath, there are two open frame chokes per amp. But yes, the power supply is seriously overbuilt for what it's doing. :)

westend said:
At least I know what to get you for Christmas: heatthingamajig :D
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That would be awesome, actually! :yes:
 
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