Tube Audio Design owners-hello!

[NOSValves]

You're right, of course, and I apologize for my inaccurate description(s.) Sorry for any confusion I may have.

I should have said, "triode mode or UL mode." The way the amp switches are labeled for these two different classes of operation is with a "3/three" and a "4/four" to differentiate between the two modes.

Paul also suggested a "*NEW SINGLE ENDED CLASS A BIAS" operation, that I always assumed to mean, "use in triode mode." But I see now that that may not be correct? I never thought of using the amp biased in "SE class A bias" in "4/four" UL mode, and always biased it this way in triode mode. :scratch2:

EDIT: I just got my head out of my butt and remembered there is such an animal as SEUL. For some reason I never put the TAD-60 and SEUL together in my mind, man can I be stoopid sometimes.

By the way I wasn't trying to single you out I have just been reading Ultra Linear tagged with the Pentode name often lately. If memory serves me Bob Latino states that often I believe. The two are very different animals.

 

[Fran604g]

By the way I wasn't trying to single you out I have just been reading Ultra Linear tagged with the Pentode name often lately. If memory serves me Bob Latino states that often I believe. The two are very different animals.

That's OK with me. :thmbsp:

I tend to forget things and get confused more now then ever before; the product of very powerful pain medications. I respect accuracy of terminology and don't want to promulgate errors.

On the topic of Mr Grzybek, I wish I had had the presence of mind to have asked him a lot more questions, but I never wanted to be a thorn in his side, because he was so nice.

 

[kjam1]

Hello all, I was browsing around this morning and found this thread so I thought I would throw in my two cents.
I have been the proud owner of a TAD 60 amp and TAD 150 pre for the last five years. Have not had any problems with either piece of gear while in my stable of many gears.
I bought my equipment due to the favorable comments on the net about TAD and the fair asking prices they are going for on the used market. When I bought them I was using a McCormack DNA1 amp swapped out from time to time with a Mac 2105 amp for solid state, a Cary SLA70 or a Sonic frontiers poweramp 1 for tubes.
The amp came with 6ca7 EH tubes which I have never tried in it. The Winged C KT88 has been glowing all these years with wonderful airy three dimensional sound. None of the other amps I have sound as good as this amp does. Tried rolling tubes in the 12ax7 spot and I agree with Paul the Tele smooth plate is the best, in the 12au7 sockets I have gone to a 12bh7, and what a difference that makes. This amp is a very rugged solidly built amp and can take the demands the 12bh7 place on the power tranny. I am not saying that it is designed for this tube, it isn't. If you are a tube roller like I am and willing to try different substitutions for the 12au7, You might like what you hear.
As far as the preamp, mine is not the Special edition model, But it still sounds great! I have even tried to 12bh7 in it as well and loved the sound they produce. anyone thinking about getting this preamp won't be sorry. Will it beat out more costly preamps? Yes, but for the money spent it is a good choice, with that being said, Recently I swapped out the TAD 150 pre for a Golden tube audio SE1. This is a single ended hybrid using one 6dj8/6299/7308. I have to admit after rolling this preamp in to the mix I am hearing things in my music that I have never heard before. Very clear and detailed. This is a good match. I am running this setup with Von Schweikert VR2 speakers, Musical fidelity A5 cd player, and Technics sp25 TT with Denon DL103 cartridge. I am loving it!!
I would also like to keep in touch with other TAD gear users, I have some KT90s I am itching to roll in to the amp but without the Guru Paul to refer to I am hesitant to try. I don't know what to bias them at. I sent Paul an email about this same question and that is how I found out about his untimely demise. He will be missed for his expertise and his wonderful demeanor.

 

[Fran604g]

Hello all, I was browsing around this morning and found this thread so I thought I would throw in my two cents.
I have been the proud owner of a TAD 60 amp and TAD 150 pre for the last five years. Have not had any problems with either piece of gear while in my stable of many gears.
I bought my equipment due to the favorable comments on the net about TAD and the fair asking prices they are going for on the used market. When I bought them I was using a McCormack DNA1 amp swapped out from time to time with a Mac 2105 amp for solid state, a Cary SLA70 or a Sonic frontiers poweramp 1 for tubes.
The amp came with 6ca7 EH tubes which I have never tried in it. The Winged C KT88 has been glowing all these years with wonderful airy three dimensional sound. None of the other amps I have sound as good as this amp does. Tried rolling tubes in the 12ax7 spot and I agree with Paul the Tele smooth plate is the best, in the 12au7 sockets I have gone to a 12bh7, and what a difference that makes. This amp is a very rugged solidly built amp and can take the demands the 12bh7 place on the power tranny. I am not saying that it is designed for this tube, it isn't. If you are a tube roller like I am and willing to try different substitutions for the 12au7, You might like what you hear.
As far as the preamp, mine is not the Special edition model, But it still sounds great! I have even tried to 12bh7 in it as well and loved the sound they produce. anyone thinking about getting this preamp won't be sorry. Will it beat out more costly preamps? Yes, but for the money spent it is a good choice, with that being said, Recently I swapped out the TAD 150 pre for a Golden tube audio SE1. This is a single ended hybrid using one 6dj8/6299/7308. I have to admit after rolling this preamp in to the mix I am hearing things in my music that I have never heard before. Very clear and detailed. This is a good match. I am running this setup with Von Schweikert VR2 speakers, Musical fidelity A5 cd player, and Technics sp25 TT with Denon DL103 cartridge. I am loving it!!
I would also like to keep in touch with other TAD gear users, I have some KT90s I am itching to roll in to the amp but without the Guru Paul to refer to I am hesitant to try. I don't know what to bias them at. I sent Paul an email about this same question and that is how I found out about his untimely demise. He will be missed for his expertise and his wonderful demeanor.

It's nice to read your comments about your experiences. I was going to try the 12BH7 swap myself at one point, I don't remember if I did or not, I do recall asking Paul about that particular swap and he said it would be fine with the increased draw on the PT. I'll have to give a try. I'm really itching to try KT88's...maybe it's time for my wife to buy me a Quad of them for Christmas.

 

[cries55]

I have to say this thread far exceeds my expectations, both in quality of info and quantity of happy TAD users. My TAD 150 sig has gone to gigabyt, replaced with an ARC sp-6b and a Fisher 400cx. Both sound different, sound great, but don't match my TAD 1000's like the 150. My 1000's now run the mid/hf portion of my bi-amped system, and I find that the UL/4 mode sounds livelier than the triode/3 mode which I was running when they were powering the entire system. WAY OVERKILL actually, as I really only need about 5 good watts. They very well might be put on the block soon, so if any of you TAD folks want to upgrade to a great set of monoblocs I can share with you the history etc. I would love for them to go to someone already familiar with TAD gear. They will come with kt 120's, and rock the house with those guys!

 

[kjam1]

Do Any of you TAD owners have the manual for the TAD 60 or TAD 150. I didn't get one with my gear, and If anyone has bias info for the different tubes this animal will run, that would be greatly appreciated?

 

[cries55]

it's online, unfortunately. I have a TAD1000 so I don' think the bias info is the same. if it is I will gladly share.

 

[Fran604g]

Do Any of you TAD owners have the manual for the TAD 60 or TAD 150. I didn't get one with my gear, and If anyone has bias info for the different tubes this animal will run, that would be greatly appreciated?

I sent you a PM...

 

[Mr. Orange]

Do Any of you TAD owners have the manual for the TAD 60 or TAD 150. I didn't get one with my gear, and If anyone has bias info for the different tubes this animal will run, that would be greatly appreciated?

I have a copy of the instructions for setting the bias on the 60. If you still need it pm me with an email address and I'll send it to you.

Along those same lines I'm also looking for the full owners manual on the 60.

 

[Fran604g]

I have a copy of the instructions for setting the bias on the 60. If you still need it pm me with an email address and I'll send it to you.

Along those same lines I'm also looking for the full owners manual on the 60.

Is there one? I've not seen or heard that there is such an animal. :scratch2:

 

[kjam1]

Thank you Fran, I appreciate your PM for the information, I wish there were documentation on these. I am a member of the golden tube forum on Yahoo Groups. We should start a forum for TAD owners to go and upload any data and share info on keeping these great pieces of equipment going for the ages. It is a shame they will never be made again.
Mine is unique in that the guy I got mine from had Paul upgrade it with his famous upgrades and he even added a second channel you could run another component on with a flip of the switch. I will have to post a pic of the amp so others can see another of his great ideas.

 

[Fran604g]

Thank you Fran, I appreciate your PM for the information, I wish there were documentation on these. I am a member of the golden tube forum on Yahoo Groups. We should start a forum for TAD owners to go and upload any data and share info on keeping these great pieces of equipment going for the ages. It is a shame they will never be made again.
Mine is unique in that the guy I got mine from had Paul upgrade it with his famous upgrades and he even added a second channel you could run another component on with a flip of the switch. I will have to post a pic of the amp so others can see another of his great ideas.

You're very welcome! I look forward to your pictures. :thmbsp:

Have you seen this post?

I'm curious how different the tweaks to yours is to mine. :scratch2:

 

[kjam1]

Hi Fran,
I did see that post, your pics are great. I have never taken the time to pop open the case to see what is inside. the previous owner told me he had Paul upgrade it and add the extra channel. I will take the amp down out of my system and pull the bottom off to see what she looks like with her skirt off and take some pics for all to see. I am going to roll the KT90 tubes in this next week since I got your bias info. I will post my findings on the KT90 versus the KT88.

 

[Fran604g]

Great topic started by the OP!

I'm very happy to see other enthusiasts of Paul's work here at AK, and hope to see many, many more owners find this, and hopefully contribute.

Hi Fran,
I did see that post, your pics are great. I have never taken the time to pop open the case to see what is inside. the previous owner told me he had Paul upgrade it and add the extra channel. I will take the amp down out of my system and pull the bottom off to see what she looks like with her skirt off and take some pics for all to see. I am going to roll the KT90 tubes in this next week since I got your bias info. I will post my findings on the KT90 versus the KT88.

If you would for me, observe the power transformer temperature driving the KT90's. I've noticed that mine runs pretty warm (almost hot ~130f) with the 6550C's in UL using the 4 ohm taps (paralleled KLH-6's and Large Advents). It runs a wee bit cooler, but still pretty warm, when using my AR3a's that are nominally rated at 4 ohms, and nice and cool using the 8 ohm taps with my 8 ohm Altec 604's.

I look forward to seeing another "under the hood" view of the 60, there are so few images of it that I've found. :thmbsp:

 

[kjam1]

Ok Fran,
I finally got the time to take the skirt off the TAD 60 and take some pics of the wiring. I took some of the switch that Paul set up to as a dedicated Channel that could be switched over to with a third set of RCA inputs. I used it to run a TT and Phono preamp directly in to the amp. On the back you can see three sets of RCA inputs. they guy I bought this from said the two sets right next to each other were for the main channel and a sub, but i tried to set things up that way and it does not run a sub. I am not sure what the second set of inputs is for. Looks like stock caps in this one just like yours Fran. no upgrades there, just the extra channel and switch. Any ideas on what the extra inputs are for?

 

[writethis]

Another very happy TAD-60 owner here. Picked up a 2007 version with the LED biasing feature a few months ago. It came with the original JJ 6CA7s which were insanely microphonic. Tried Shuguang EL34s which yielded boomy bass in that system. Next went to reissue Mullard EL34s which work really well. I've tried a bunch of vintage tubes in the other slots (much cheaper to experiment vs. power tubes) and have landed on Mullards for 12AU7s and a Mullard 12AT7 where a 12AX7 is supposed to go. Have various nice preamp tube examples from GE, Sylvania, RCA etc on hand (guitar player) but the low end extension and overall balance feels most right to my ears with the Mullards.

Still kind of freaking out at how good my main system is sounding these days, and Paul's amp is a big part of the equation. Wish I'd had the opportunity to meet him. Though I haven't lived in the chicago area in decades, I spent my grade school years in Wheaton where Paul lived and worked.

 

[Fran604g]

Ok Fran,
I finally got the time to take the skirt off the TAD 60 and take some pics of the wiring. I took some of the switch that Paul set up to as a dedicated Channel that could be switched over to with a third set of RCA inputs. I used it to run a TT and Phono preamp directly in to the amp. On the back you can see three sets of RCA inputs. they guy I bought this from said the two sets right next to each other were for the main channel and a sub, but i tried to set things up that way and it does not run a sub. I am not sure what the second set of inputs is for. Looks like stock caps in this one just like yours Fran. no upgrades there, just the extra channel and switch. Any ideas on what the extra inputs are for?

I have no idea kjam1, sorry.

 

[kray]

Hey guys! Been a long time since I've posted here. I originally had a Cayin TA-30 that Paul modified with focus, ext bias, and sub out, back in 2004, sold all my gear a couple years later when I moved to Honolulu. I'm back on the mainland now, in Albuquerque, and building another system.

Just snagged a TAD-60 on agon, and should arrive on Saturday. He had Tung-Sol KT-66's in it. Can't wait to start playing with it. I only have B&W 685's right now, and still deciding if I want to get a CD player or USB dac to start out with.

The guy I bought the TAD-60 from said he's also sending printouts from everything Paul ever put out on details of the TAD. I'll find a place to share them with you guys.

 

[cries55]

thanks a million Kray!

 

[Fran604g]

Hey guys! Been a long time since I've posted here. I originally had a Cayin TA-30 that Paul modified with focus, ext bias, and sub out, back in 2004, sold all my gear a couple years later when I moved to Honolulu. I'm back on the mainland now, in Albuquerque, and building another system.

Just snagged a TAD-60 on agon, and should arrive on Saturday. He had Tung-Sol KT-66's in it. Can't wait to start playing with it. I only have B&W 685's right now, and still deciding if I want to get a CD player or USB dac to start out with.

The guy I bought the TAD-60 from said he's also sending printouts from everything Paul ever put out on details of the TAD. I'll find a place to share them with you guys.

Thanks, Kray! :thmbsp: