Sound Valves M40

[watt]

These were for sale not too far from me. Not too easy to find information on them, but there were some threads here on AK that identified the link between Sound Valves and Van Alstine's Dynaco designs. I have a tube preamp and a hybrid Counterpoint power amp, but these are my first proper tube monoblocks. So I suppose I have some things to learn about biasing and such.

I'm listening to Fela Kuti right now, getting ready to attempt a shootout with some chip amp monoblocks I bought in Barter Town not too long ago. Trouble is, pretty much anything sounds good to me when it's playing Fela.

 

[Bluelobster]

Sound valves ended up buying the remaining stock of Dynaco when it went under. There must have been a lot as I remember getting replacement parts up to about 10 years ago.
Any way you will notice the resemblance to a Dynaco MK IV. Sound Valves, as many did, reworked the driver board. I got one of their boards for an ST70 and liked it a good bit. I guess they needed to do something to move out those old chassis.

 

[jwalker]

These were for sale not too far from me. Not too easy to find information on them, but there were some threads here on AK that identified the link between Sound Valves and Van Alstine's Dynaco designs. I have a tube preamp and a hybrid Counterpoint power amp, but these are my first proper tube monoblocks. So I suppose I have some things to learn about biasing and such.

I'm listening to Fela Kuti right now, getting ready to attempt a shootout with some chip amp monoblocks I bought in Barter Town not too long ago. Trouble is, pretty much anything sounds good to me when it's playing Fela.

What kind of a small-signal tube is that? 6U8A, 6GH8?

 

[watt]

What kind of a small-signal tube is that? 6U8A, 6GH8?

It's a 6GH8A.

I like these a lot so far, though I had a little confusion on startup. After throwing the power switch the "Standby/On" LED is red for several seconds, then goes green, then back to red. But they do play. Seems like long odds to find a manual for these, though I suppose posting in the Digital Docs section couldn't hurt.

 

[bharper]

sound valves are still on ebay, you can probably email and come up with a manual...

 

[watt]

sound valves are still on ebay, you can probably email and come up with a manual...

Excellent idea. Thanks for that. :thmbsp:

 

[Destructor]

I have their ST70 Series 2 that was made in the early 90's. It has been rock solid dependable and sounds very good. The M40's I beleive are almost identical circuits but mono's. Circuits are very similar to the original Dynacos, at least the ST70 is. I changed out all the coupling caps in mine to MIT's. It was an improvement. I also have one of their preamps, the 101i. Except for a bridge failure a few weeks after I got it (they repaired it with a larger bridge) it also has been very dependable and sounds very good, a bargain modern pre at the time.

 

[Mdlcitz]

Got these to play with. I'm using the preamp of the Marantz 1120(witch I love). It came with Electro Harmonic 6ca7's. I'm a Bass player. What should I do to get deeper bass from my system. What tubes would you suggest? Thanks.