Species8472
Member
It's a two channel 50 watt class-a el34 amp. 50 watts seems like a lot for el34s. Sounds pretty good though but has somewhat of a transistor like sound to it. Ever hear of it?
Nobis Technologies Convigore
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Species8472
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freddyfender
Uma ma-ma
I own a Cantabile, 35 wpc. Looks just like the one in the photo above. My trannies are black, though. It's been pretty reliable, I like the sound. Also have the matching pre-amp (Proteus). Owned 'em for about 10 years. It's a hybrid amp, I believe.
fredcohiba
Super Member
Reviving an old post to see who might have information on Nobis or Signature Technology equipment - Made by Sound Investments in Glendale, WI. Looking for schematics etc for my Signature SRa-4 Amplifier and Signature SRp-7g Preamplifier.
Sound Investments is no longer in business and I think my preamp needs some tlc. I hear a slight hum through the speakers and sometimes in the left channel I hear an ocean sound through the speaker. Goes away when I power off and power back on again.
Sound Investments is no longer in business and I think my preamp needs some tlc. I hear a slight hum through the speakers and sometimes in the left channel I hear an ocean sound through the speaker. Goes away when I power off and power back on again.
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fredcohiba
Super Member
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fredcohiba
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leolansing
New Member
I have a Nobis Proteus and I love it, but now it also is in need of repairs. Does anyone have the schematics for any of the Signature Technologies/Nobis products?
Here in Chicago, Deltronics has done some reverse engineering to be able to restore the preamp, but it would be awesome to have the schematics for future repairs. Thanks
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markviii1998
New Member
Wow, interesting. Never heard of this company. Are there any schematics flating around?
leolansing
New Member
They were a boutique company in Wisconsin with relative success in the 1990’s, but with the owner’s passing, unfortunately there are no schematics that I have found. At least for their preamplifiers.
classichammo
New Member
I don't know that actual schematics exist, I was hired on the ground floor .
I built the test benches and was pretty much the sole assembler of the amps which had several different versions spanning the 2 companies. The owners , a money guy and the engineer split with the brains running Signature. The names are latin, meaning different sound/emotions. They were suggested by the same artist, another friend of the owners that was responsible for any of the layouts/art work/graphics. Stanley, the artist, was also an audiophile and owner of such equipment as plasma speakers(used a tank of gas) and the large JBL cabinet which name leaves me now. He even was involved selecting the knobs as feel matters! The engineer was pretty much a friend of mine. Every amp sat on my assembly/test bench and played for 8 hours as the parts broke in while I built the next amp. There was a noticeable change as it broke in specifically the tubes. Brian, the engineer, bought the rights to the Sutherland board mod. But it didn't end there , a board was developed for bias circuits so tubes could be fine tuned and the power supply was beefed up with two large caps in the later models. We were running 6550's in the bigger models. The last CES show we displayed at we sold 400 Cantabiles and some "Vigs"and I needed help assembling that number of amps, the help mounted tube sockets etc no one else did soldering but myself. Needless to say I took great pride in my work. We also had a line of speakers I was in on with crossover design...believe it or not the designer had a secondary hobby of guns and had an issue with higher frequencies and he would have me in so our stuff wasn't too tinny. I had a past playing Hammond B-3 (still do) and so my music background was important in some of what you hear. My leslies are not unlike the nobis amps with similar circuit configurations. I also did most of the warranty work although the only issues were at the inputs with abuse being the main problem. Later Brian built a pair of mono blocs patterned after Marantz 8's I believe. 200 watts! they were amazing, 11K a pair in the late 90's. I doubt there are more than 15 or 20 pair floating around. Saw a pair on ebay I should have bought but being retired cash is not ample.But I should have leaped. They had some of the bias controls and power supply design from the smaller amps, used 6550's, and custom wound transformers (in a guys garage, he'd come in the shop and want to discuss Gauss!). We took marantz transformers apart and copied them. You can't beat a proven part and transformers are critical. I think we paid the guy 3 hundred dollars for one transformer. You couldn't buy them at the parts store. Brian had an interesting group of people surrounding him. I should look I may have a sheet with the parts and layouts but nothing for the circuit boards. The pre-amps were really rather simple, once again choice of parts were critical. As I write this listening to a srp 7 preamp (christmas gift from the boss) a vig with a really hot bias, non factory, pushing the tubes to the edge and DM 5's a fabulous book shelf, airy and incredible imaging. We also built a CD player with tube output stage. In my larger home of the past my "Vigs" were bridged running either through dubl stacked Quads or Fulton Premiers. Bob Fulton was also a friend of Brians as well as Dave Belles.....Belles built a class A solid state like no others.....Fulton personally listened to every driver before they were put in his speakers....some say he rejected 90 percent of the shipment. These guys were out there....but their stuff was amazing.
I built the test benches and was pretty much the sole assembler of the amps which had several different versions spanning the 2 companies. The owners , a money guy and the engineer split with the brains running Signature. The names are latin, meaning different sound/emotions. They were suggested by the same artist, another friend of the owners that was responsible for any of the layouts/art work/graphics. Stanley, the artist, was also an audiophile and owner of such equipment as plasma speakers(used a tank of gas) and the large JBL cabinet which name leaves me now. He even was involved selecting the knobs as feel matters! The engineer was pretty much a friend of mine. Every amp sat on my assembly/test bench and played for 8 hours as the parts broke in while I built the next amp. There was a noticeable change as it broke in specifically the tubes. Brian, the engineer, bought the rights to the Sutherland board mod. But it didn't end there , a board was developed for bias circuits so tubes could be fine tuned and the power supply was beefed up with two large caps in the later models. We were running 6550's in the bigger models. The last CES show we displayed at we sold 400 Cantabiles and some "Vigs"and I needed help assembling that number of amps, the help mounted tube sockets etc no one else did soldering but myself. Needless to say I took great pride in my work. We also had a line of speakers I was in on with crossover design...believe it or not the designer had a secondary hobby of guns and had an issue with higher frequencies and he would have me in so our stuff wasn't too tinny. I had a past playing Hammond B-3 (still do) and so my music background was important in some of what you hear. My leslies are not unlike the nobis amps with similar circuit configurations. I also did most of the warranty work although the only issues were at the inputs with abuse being the main problem. Later Brian built a pair of mono blocs patterned after Marantz 8's I believe. 200 watts! they were amazing, 11K a pair in the late 90's. I doubt there are more than 15 or 20 pair floating around. Saw a pair on ebay I should have bought but being retired cash is not ample.But I should have leaped. They had some of the bias controls and power supply design from the smaller amps, used 6550's, and custom wound transformers (in a guys garage, he'd come in the shop and want to discuss Gauss!). We took marantz transformers apart and copied them. You can't beat a proven part and transformers are critical. I think we paid the guy 3 hundred dollars for one transformer. You couldn't buy them at the parts store. Brian had an interesting group of people surrounding him. I should look I may have a sheet with the parts and layouts but nothing for the circuit boards. The pre-amps were really rather simple, once again choice of parts were critical. As I write this listening to a srp 7 preamp (christmas gift from the boss) a vig with a really hot bias, non factory, pushing the tubes to the edge and DM 5's a fabulous book shelf, airy and incredible imaging. We also built a CD player with tube output stage. In my larger home of the past my "Vigs" were bridged running either through dubl stacked Quads or Fulton Premiers. Bob Fulton was also a friend of Brians as well as Dave Belles.....Belles built a class A solid state like no others.....Fulton personally listened to every driver before they were put in his speakers....some say he rejected 90 percent of the shipment. These guys were out there....but their stuff was amazing.
leolansing
New Member
Classichammo, thank you for sharing such an intersecting story. This must have been a very exciting time to be involved in creating new amplifiers, preamplifiers and speakers. It seems that the Belle’s and Nobis/Signature were truly works of engineering art. I take more pride in owning a piece of that creative moment in the engineering history in the Midwest.
leolansing
New Member
@classichammo, would you know anyone in Wisconsin or Chicago (besides Deltronics) who would be able to determine the value of the transformer the Nobis Proteus uses? That is the only part I need to replace to bring my preamp back to life
classichammo
New Member
Wish I could help.....my stuff is in storage 1300 miles north. I don't remember if the Proteus has the same transformer as the SRA 7. It was nothing fancy, I built several dozen maybe. Did your transformer die? I don't remember what voltage it provided. If you have the phono section that would probably require a second voltage. It wouldn't require much if a Proteus was available to get the measurement. Maybe someone here has one they could put a meter on. There were a bunch of them sold, I don't know how many. It wasn't custom built for us, it was sourced somewhere in the country. This was before the internet. If it has some identification try some of the large part outfits. It's been 30 years and my memory isn't great. It would have been easily sourced as we were anal about quality and availability and these were produced for at least 10 years. It's a great pre-amp, quiet, no colorization and had a great phono section if you have that option. I believed we used a Counterpoint for reference when developing it. We handled in the retail store Audio Research, Counterpoint, B&K for lower end, Pioneer and Denon for lo-fi / video and anything good that came in on trade that we could turn. So I got to play with a lot of brands, I could take home anything I wanted for audition. He did that for most customers and had a loyal following. It was a special service and he sold a lot of our Nobis brand. Good Luck.
Tom
I head north in 2 weeks.....I'll see what I got when I get a chance if you aren't successful.
Tom
I head north in 2 weeks.....I'll see what I got when I get a chance if you aren't successful.
classichammo
New Member
Absolute Sound did an eval on the amp as well.......we were aghast at what they played through it though lol.
Classichammond
Classichammond
leolansing
New Member
@classichammo, it is so cool that you had a chance to listen to a variety of gear at different price points, and had access to excellent parts to build exemplary classics. It sounds like it was a great time to listen to music. My Proteus does have a phono section that uses two 12AX7 tubes. I don’t know if it is original or if it was added later on, but I would love to listen to it now that have upgraded my turntable set-up
